Returning home
by kath-lee15
Summary: Lucas and Peyton decided a long time ago to build their life away from Tree Hill and all the people that had hurt them before, but an unfortunate event brings them back. How will they handle it and how about the people they left behind?
1. Chapter 1

-Lucas slowly opened his eyes, rubbing the sleep off his eyes. If there was one thing he still had difficulties adapting to, living in L.A., even if it had been close to 5 years, it was the sun, it was always so sunny compared to Tree Hill. He slowly moved his head to look at the sleeping blond sleeping deeply beside him. Peyton on the other hand had no trouble sleeping even though the sun was already up. They'd been married for eleven months now and Lucas couldn't be happier. He was torn out of his thought by the alarm indicating it was time for them to wake up. He turned it off before turning his body so that he was on his side facing his wife. He slowly caressed her face with his thumb and gently pressed his lips on her trying to wake her up. When he felt her responding to the kiss he pulled back.

-"Hey", she mumbled sleepily, "I was enjoying that."

-"Me too, but we both know that if we don't stop now, we'll both be extremely late for work." He said still caressing her cheeks with his fingers.

-"I hate it when you're right." She agreed giving him a small smile.

-"I know." He sweetly pressed his lips on hers for a few seconds and then pulled back.

-"Tease"

-He laughed at the face she was making.

-"Come on, you wake her up, I'll make breakfast." He said as he got out of bed.

-"Fine, but I'm expecting something more then toasts, just so you're warned." She glared at him, finally getting out of bed and heading for their daughter's room.

-Lucas smile at her retreating form and headed for the kitchen.

-If someone would have told him that him and Peyton were going to get pregnant before they even finished their first year of college and that it would actually turn great, he would have never believed it, but here they were 5 years later and this was actually how things were.

-Peyton slowly walked into her daughter's room and sat on the side of the small bed. She knew exactly why she was the one waking their daughter, she was the happiest kid on earth once she was awake, but getting her out of bed was most of time a pain.

-Lucas kept joking about how since she got this from her, she should be the one waking her up. This worked well because her husband had a tendency to bend too easily to the '5 more minute please' requests their daughter kept throwing at them before actually agreeing to get out of bed, which had made them late a number of times before.

-She smiled. She had been extremely lucky though to have Lucas. When she had realized that she was pregnant she had just barely started college here in L.A and she had been scared to death, but Lucas had been great. The moment she had told him that she thought she might be pregnant he had flown out of North Carolina to take the test with her and when they had decided to keep the baby, he had given up everything, transferring from his dream school to be with her here in Los Angeles because he knew that it was the best place for her to study. She remembered when she had argued against It, he had looked her straight in the eyes and said. "I can study English anywhere, you need to be here, so that's where I am going to be too." So she had agreed and Lucas had moved here with her.

-She carefully played with her daughter's blond, curly hair. They were exactly like hers, but about a shade lighter. She looked like an angel all warped tightly in the covers. She was convinced that her daughter had to be the kid in this town who slept with the most blankets on. Her and Lucas had no idea how she could do it, but she had once told them that she liked feeling tightly warped.

-She shook her gently. "Anna sweetie wake up." She wasn't surprised when she got no answer.

-She walked to the window and pulled out the blinds so that the sun would shine in but the only effect it had was that the little girl turned and buried her head in her pillow. She tried again.

-"Anna, get up, daddy's making breakfast."

-"No, sleep." Was the only response she had. She sighed and sat back on the bed rubbing the girl's back.

-"Honey, we're going to be late."

-"Tired mommy." She heard the muffled voiced.

-"I know baby, so am I, but daddy woke me up so now I'm waking you up."

She saw the little girl slowly roll on her back.

-"Good morning."

-"Daddy should sleep more." Anna told her.

-Peyton had to laughed at that.

-"I know baby, but your daddy is a morning person." She said as she kissed her daughter on the forehead.

-"Not me." Apparently Anna was in an arguing mood this morning.

-"I know, so what about you get up, get ready and then we can discuss this with him."

-"No!" Anna stubbornly crossed her arms in front of her.

-Peyton laughed, Anna could be so much like her some times it was like looking in the mirror. Well except for her eyes, the deep blue eyes that were glaring at her right now, were definitively Lucas, their was no missing it.

-"Come on, daddy's making us breakfast. You wouldn't want to miss that would you?"

-"He's making toasts." Her daughter argued.

-Peyton laughed again. Lucas had pulled that one before, bribing them into waking up with breakfast and then handing each of them toasts, Anna was having none of it she knew her dad.

-"No he's not, I warned him about that."

-"Promise?"

-"Yeah promise. Can't you smell? It smells like pancakes."

-Anna turned her head toward the door and when she was finally convinced that she wasn't getting up to eat toast, she pulled the covers off her and was about to run out the door when Peyton stopped her.

-She laughed, Anna definitively kept them on their toes. One second she wouldn't get out of bed, the next she was flying out the door.

-"Whoa stop right there missy. You're not going anywhere before you brush you teeth and get dressed."

-"But mommy." She started arguing.

-"No you don't, you're not talking yourself out of that one. Come on." She took the little girl's hand and led her to the bathroom. They had learned pretty early on that if they allowed her to eat before getting ready, she would start playing and amusing herself after her breakfast and it would take them forever to get her dressed afterward.

-Peyton stood beside her daughter brushing her own teeth while keeping an eye on Anna. Another trait that the little girl had inherited from her mother was her independence. She loved doing things on her own and hated people babying her. Peyton remembered how Anna had refused to wear shoes with laces until she could put them on and lace them all by herself. It had been hilarious watching her, sitting on the ground with a shoe in her hand trying to get it done like her parents had shown her with a determined look on her face. It had taken her awhile, but when she had finally did it she had walked around in her new shoes with that proud look on her face for hours.

-When Anna was done washing her teeth and her face they went back into her room. Anna insisted that she could get dress on her own, but she could take forever to pick something to wear and they didn't have time for that this morning.

-"I want to wear this." The little girl pointed at a pink shirt and a matching skirt. Peyton smiled, her daughter was definitively a girly girl. She loved pink and purple and dresses and skirt, all this stuff that Peyton wouldn't have been cut near when she was younger. She loved this about her daughter.

-Peyton okayed the outfit and watched as the little girl carefully put it on and watched herself in the mirror before looking at her mother for approval.

-"You look beautiful." She smiled.

-"Can I go see daddy and eat now?" Anna asked.

-"Sure. Tell your daddy, I'll be in the shower." She said and then she walked in the direction of their bedroom while Anna ran in the other direction.

-Lucas was standing in front of the stove making the pancakes when he heard his daughter's footsteps. He turned around to see her running toward him.

-"Good morning daddy!" She said excitedly as she ran into his arms.

-Lucas hugged her close and kissed her hair walking away from the stove.

-"Good morning to you too princess." He smiled at his little angel. She beamed at him. "You want pancakes?" He asked her sitting her down on her chair.

-"Yes please daddy." She gave him a big smile.

-The two of them kept talking, well Anna kept talking, she had a lot to say. She told Lucas about what she was going to do at day care and her friends. Lucas found it extremely funny that him and Peyton, two people that loved to keep to themselves had created such an outgoing child. Anna loved talking and meeting people and was the farthest thing from being shy, but she also had her moments when she proved that she was just like her parents, she had those moments where she wanted nothing more than to be left alone. Right now, she was in a good mood.

-When Peyton came into the kitchen ready for the day, Anna had just finished eating and Lucas was putting down two more plates on the table, one for each of them.

-"Hey blondie." He called when he saw her come in. "You look beautiful." He smiled as Peyton got closer and wrapped her arms around his neck.

-"Thanks." She breathed their lips less than an inch apart. Lucas immediately close the gap and took her lips. He couldn't help it, she was intoxicating. They broke apart moments later and both turn to their daughter to find her doodling on her napkin. All their friends found it weird that the four year old had never been disturbed in the least by the sight of her parent making out.

-Peyton kissed Anna on the cheek and her and Lucas sat down to eat with their daughter. They listened as she told them about the most random things while they ate. Lucas loved theses moments, where they did the most common things like share a meal, it made him feel whole.

-When they were done, Peyton cleaned up while Lucas took a shower and got ready for work.

-Peyton finished cleaning up and was surprised that Lucas hadn't returned from the bedroom yet, he was usually ready pretty quick. She patted her daughter on the head gently.

-"I'll go see if daddy is ready." She told her and Anna only nodded captivated by what she had been drawing. On top of the other things they shared, a passion for art was another thing they shared.

-She found Lucas sitting on their bed with his computer.

-"Hey! You okay?" She asked him concerned.

-Lucas was obviously surprised by her entrance and turned around to look at her.

-"Hum yeah it's just…" He started.

-"What?"

-"I got this e-mail from Skills."

-"What does it say?" She knew from his expression that it was nothing good.

-"Whithey died yesterday."

-"Oh!"


	2. Chapter 2

-"Oh", that was all Peyton could say. She had not been expecting this kind of news.

-"Yeah, apparently he had an heart attack and the doctors couldn't bring him back, he died yesterday evening." Lucas explained looking out the window.

-"When is the funeral?" Peyton asked hesitantly. Whitey had also meant a lot to her and she was sad that he was gone even if she hadn't seen him in the last 5 years.

-"This Saturday."

-"In three days?" Peyton questioned. She needed to wrapped her head around this new information.

-"Yeah. Skills is asking if we want to go." Skills was the only one of their old friends in Tree Hill they had contacts with and even they had only reconnected with him when they had invited him to their wedding, Lucas had wanted him to be one of his groomsmen and Skills had accepted. After that they had kept in contacts through e-mails and phone calls.

-"Oh! Do you?" Peyton asked after she recovered from the surprise.

-"I don't know. I mean we skipped on the 5 year reunion because we didn't want to see them. I don't think we can avoid them if we go to Whitey's funeral." It was true they had agreed when the invitation to the reunion had arrived that they didn't want anything to do with it. The reunion was less than 3 weeks ago and here they were talking about going back.

-"I know, but at the same time, it's Whitey. He did a lot for each of us, I think we owe that to him. You know, pay our respects." Peyton suggested.

-"What about them?" He questioned. Lucas had taken their betrayal the hardest, maybe because he had been the one to face it, Peyton was in Los Angeles and had only heard about it upon his return. It was after that that they had decided that they were done with Tree Hill and had put everything past them to start a new life. It had been 5 years ago.

-"I don't really care. I mean, it was so long ago. I'm sure they are past it, we are. We can probably be civil with each other, you know, say hi and then mind our own business and leave them to theirs." Peyton wasn't any more thrilled then Lucas about seeing the people they had left behind, put it was Whitey they were talking about.

-"So we go and we ignore them. Do you think it could work?" He asked her nervously.

-"I think that they can't force us to talk to them anyway, so what can they do? But Lucas, what about your mom, she might be there, her and Whitey were close."

-Lucas hardened immediately, his mother's betrayal had been the hardest for him to accept, harder than Haley's or Nathan and harder than it had been for her to deal with her last fight with Brooke, the one that had ended their friendship definitively.

-"I don't want to see her." He decided.

-"Okay, we don't have to anyway. What about Anna? Maybe we could ask Sara and Liz, they would love to baby-sit for the weekend." Sara and Liz were Luke and Peyton's best friends. They had been their roommates for all of college and had been pretty disappointed when Lucas, Peyton and Anna had moved out after they had graduated. They were also Anna's godparents. Sure it was a little weird that Anna had two godmothers, but it was L.A., weirder things had happened there, beside they loved Anna to death. The two friends had even kept Peyton and Lucas room free and had made it into a room for Anna for when she stayed over. They were the two persons Lucas and Peyton trusted most with their daughter.

-"I'd like her to come. I mean she has never been to North Carolina and she keeps asking where we grew up. It would be nice to show her, she could meet your mom and Keith too." Lucas suggested. He felt kind of guilty, he hadn't been to his uncle graved since he had moved to California.

-"But what about the funeral and what about them?" Peyton emphasized the last word and Lucas understood. Protecting their daughter had always been the most important thing for them, even if it was from her own family, well technically. Lucas and herself on the other hand never referred to them as such, they were people they used to know, nothing more.

-Lucas thought about it for a few seconds. "I'm sure she could sit still long enough for the funeral, but if she doesn't want to, your dad's home right, he's not on a job somewhere?"

-"Hum no. I think he doesn't have one out of town for another 10 days or something like that. Maybe we could stay there, he could watch Anna if she doesn't want to go to the funeral. But Luke what about them? What if…?"

-"They aren't going to hurt her, I promise. I would never let them. Beside, she knows about them, about what happens, it's not like they could do much more." Lucas caressed his wife's arms lovingly giving her time to think about it.

-"I think she would love the plane, besides she hasn't seen her grandpa in a while. I'm sure she would love to see him." She finally gave Lucas a smile.

-Larry Sawyer had been the only family member they had kept constant contact with. He came to visit three to four times a year and was in love with his granddaughter. He had been so moved when Lucas and Peyton had told him that they had decided to name her Anna in memory of Peyton's mom and his wife.

-"So, we're going?" Lucas finally asked with a somber tone.

-"I guess we are." Peyton answered seriously and Lucas wrapped his arms around her, trying to get comfort from her while anticipating what was to come for them in Tree Hill.

-They pulled out of the hug when they heard a soft knock at the door and turned to see their daughter standing there looking at them.

-They never had to tell her it had been instinctive for the girl, she always knocked before entering a room when people were inside. She had seen it in a movie once when she was younger and had found it funny, so she had started doing it and it had kind of stuck. Also it had a definite advantage for her, it announced her presence and she loved it, loved the attention.

-"You look sad." She addressed her parents when they told her to come in.

-"Yeah, we are sweetie, come on." Peyton pulled her up and sat her on her lap. She was about to explain when Lucas gently nudged her.

-"Peyt. We're going to be late. Maybe we could do this tonight." He suggested. They had to drop Anna at daycare before going to work.

-"Yeah, you're right. Baby, we'll talk about this tonight promise." Peyton said hugging Anna to her body.

-"Okay, but mommy, are you and daddy going to be sad all day? I don't want you to be sad."

-"We're going to be fine princess, you don't have to worry about us." Lucas smiled at his daughter's compassion.

-"Okay." She left Peyton's lap to sit on her dad's and she hugged him. Lucas happily returned the hug. "Better now daddy?" The little girl asked him after she pulled away a little.

-"I'm great. Thank you princess." Lucas kissed her on the forehead and smiled at Peyton who was eying him curiously.

-"You know, she's turning into a daddy's girl right?" She laughed at their daughter who beamed at Lucas every time he gave her a smile.

-"I know. You jealous?" Lucas joked as he got off the bed holding Anna and offered his hand to Peyton.

-"Totally!" Peyton laughed as she took his hand and got off the bed as well.

-"Well, that's my girl." Lucas smiled pressed his lips to hers for a short kiss.

-"Mommy's your big girl, and I'm your little girl, right daddy." Anna piped in from her spot in between her parents.

-"Big! I don't think so." Peyton joked as they made their way out of the apartment and to the car.

-They only had one car, so each morning they dropped Anna at daycare and then Lucas dropped Peyton at the publicity agency where she worked as an artist before driving himself to the newspaper. They all had to sacrifice a little sleep to make it work but they were happy too even if that meant more time in traffic.

-During her lunch hour, Peyton called Lucas on his cell phone. He answered after a couple rings.

-"Hey!"

-"Hi you", he said back.

-"You busy?" Peyton wondered.

-"No, just finishing up my sentence. Okay there, I'm done. What's up?" He asked her giving her his full attention.

-Lucas worked at the L.A. times. He wasn't a big journalist or anything, but he had a little column in the art and leisure section in which he reviewed books and art shows, movies, these sort of things. He wasn't a best selling author like he had dreamed, he had wanted something with a more stable income so that his family could have a good life and he was happy with it. He kept working on his book during his free time and hoped to have it published, but he still loved his job and wasn't going to jeopardize it by focusing only on his book.

-Peyton had encouraged him when they had gotten out of college to try and get his book publish. She had gotten a job that she loved almost right out of college and had tried to convince Lucas that since he had been supporting them all the way through college, she could support them while he worked on his book, but Lucas had refused, going to work for the newspaper instead arguing that he had the rest of his life to get publish and that there were more important things to him, like finally giving Anna and Peyton everything they deserved.

-"I just wanted to tell you that I talked to my boss and since I had still a lot of vacation days left I took all next week off. I thought if you could arrange to have time off too maybe we could show Anna a little more than just Tree Hill, you know, show her the surrounding area a bit. Also, I talked to my dad and he said he'd be happy to have us stay there while we're in Tree Hill. He said he could even pick us up at the airport. So, what do you think?" She asked him finally.

-"I'd be happy to stay at your dad's and that'd be great if he could pick us up. About taking the week off, I'll ask my boss see how many days off I have left, I'll try to make it work. Worst case scenario, I'll write the articles in Tree Hill and E-mail them back to the paper."

-"So, you think that's a good idea?" She asked.

-"Staying in North Carolina for the week, yeah sure, I mean you were right they can only get to us if we let them and I'm not going to let them. Why should we keep ourselves from doing stuff only because we don't want to fight with them again, it's not worth it."

-They both fell silent for a couple seconds until Lucas spoke.

-"They're going to leave us alone right? Everything will turn out fine?" He asked a little hesitantly.

-"Yeah", Peyton finally agreed not so sure herself. They were going to have to wait and see.


	3. Chapter 3

-That night, while they were making dinner, Lucas told Peyton that he also had been able to get the following week off work so the two of them decided that they would talk to Anna about it after diner, so that they would have time to explain everything. Their daughter was very intelligent but she was still only four, it might take a while for her to understand the situation and what she was suppose to expect from Tree Hill and its residents.

-So after Lucas had made sure that Anna had taken her bath and was ready for bed, the three of them sat in the living room. Peyton waited for the program Anna had been watching to end and then she turned off the TV. so that they could talk to their daughter.

-"Anna, princess, we need to talk to you about something." Lucas started. Him and Peyton had decided a long time ago to always treat their daughter as an individual. They never forced decisions on her and always answered her questions as truthfully as possible even if sometimes it made things harder for both them and her. They believed that Anna deserved the truth from them and they always were going to give it to her which was what they were about to do.

-"Is it about what made you and mommy sad this morning?" Anna asked curious.

-"Yeah honey it is." Peyton confirmed.

-"Okay", Anna agreed sweetly.

-"A friend of your mommy and I died yesterday." Lucas looked up at her to see if she was following.

-"Like Speedy." Anna questioned. Speedy had been her goldfish. They had found it dead one morning about a year ago, they suspected that Anna had fed it to death, so they had refused to buy her another one until she was a little older. It had been a very emotional time for the little girl.

-"Yeah like Speedy." Peyton confirmed looking at Lucas thinking that maybe this was going to go better than she thought.

-"And just like we did for Speedy, you remember when we buried him in the park with Sara and Liz, our friend is going to have a funeral too. Your mom and I we would love for you to come with us if you would like. If you don't want to, we can always ask your aunt Sara and your aunt Liz to watch you. You decide."

-Anna looked up at her parents from her spot on the floor and considered this for a moment.

-"I want to come." She decided after a few seconds.

-"Okay, good. But there is also something else we need to talk about."

-"What daddy?" The girl wanted to know why her parents looked so nervous suddenly.

-It was Peyton who continued seeing the hesitation in Lucas.

-"Hum, baby. The funeral, it's in the town your daddy and I grew up, Tree Hill, North Carolina."

-"Is it fat? Are we going to take a plane there?" She asked suddenly excited, she had never taken a plane and she was thrilled about the possibility that she would.

-Peyton and Lucas looked at each other and laughed. Anna sure had the knick to relieve tensions.

-"Yes baby we're going to take a plane there. Friday after work." Peyton smiled at her daughter's excitement.

-"Really?"

-"Yes, but there is also something else." Peyton continued feeling guilty for busting the happy balloon her daughter was in so soon.

-"What mommy?"

-"You remember when you asked about why your daddy and I never went back to where we grew up. Remember what we told you?" Peyton asked.

-"Hum hum." She nodded. "You told me that you had a really bad fight with daddy's mommy and with your friends and that you didn't want to see them anymore, that here was home now." The little girl looked up at her parents to make sure that she hadn't made a mistake.

-"Yes honey we did, but see those people that we left there they knew the man that died too, so we might run into them there."

-"Oh. It's going to be okay mommy."

-Peyton smiled at her daughter's ability to understand what they told her.

-"Daddy and I we just wanted to warn you that they might not be as nice with you as other people we meet, but it has nothing to do with you. They are only angry at your daddy and I, not at you." Peyton tried to reassure the little girl knowing that she hated when people didn't like her.

-"But why wouldn't they be nice with me, I'm little." Anna argued visibly upset and the sight made Peyton and Lucas' hearts ache.

-"I don't know princess, they might be very nice with you or they might not, we don't know, but if they aren't you need to know that it's only because of how they feel about us, it has nothing to do with you. Do you think that you can handle that?" Lucas asked nervously swearing in his mind at the same time that if they made his daughter upset he was going to have their heads.

-Anna looked between them a few times before answering.

-"Okay, but daddy, are you and mommy going to be okay too?" She asked worried about her parents.

-"Yeah baby we'll be fine. We just wanted to make sure that you knew that things could go badly when we're going to be there." Peyton finished smiling at how their daughter could have such a big heart at such a young age.

-"Okay." And with that Anna closed the discussion by turning back around and asked Peyton to turn the TV back on again.

-That night Peyton and Lucas laid in bed entangled, her head on his chest.

-"So, it went better than I thought." Peyton started referring to their talk with Anna. Sometimes telling her the truth about things could be heartbreaking.

-"Yeah, but I still hate it though, that our actions are somehow linked to the pain that she feels about all of this."

-"I know, but it was the right decision and you know that, both for us and for her, they had gone too far, all of them." Peyton decided still angry about what had happened.

-"Yeah, I know. But do you think we're selfish to want to go to Whitey's funeral knowing that she could get hurt in the process?" He asked suddenly not liking the whole idea to bring Anna with them .

-"I think that she'll be fine, she's strong Luke, she can handle it. Beside, what are the chances that they would do anything to hurt her, she's just a kid, that would be harsh, even for them."

-"I know, but we can't know for sure that it won't happen." Lucas argued.

-"You're right we can't. I choose to believe that whatever they feel against us, they'll throw at us and leave the four year old alone. But if they don't, then we'll deal with it, we always do." Peyton reassured him and part of herself as well.

-"I don't know why they would be angry with us. They're the ones that screwed everything up, we only chose to protect our family from all that crap. We have nothing to feel bad about. It's all their fault." Lucas finished with an harsher tone than he had intended, but he couldn't help it, the whole thing still pissed him off.

-"I know, but who knows how their minds work. I guess it's better to be prepared for the worst, that way we can only be pleasantly surprised right?"

-Lucas smiled against her hair. "Spoken like the one and only Peyton Sawyer, I'm proud."

-When they had gotten married Peyton had decided to keep her last name instead of adding Scott and Lucas hadn't minded, he didn't need for her to take his last name to know that she loved him and it didn't make their marriage less of an union because of it, so from where he stood it didn't matter.

-Peyton smiled at her husband's words and the two of them fell asleep into each other's arm confident that no matter what happened in Tree Hill, they still had each other and their family and friends, because in the end, it was the only thing that mattered, at least they hoped.


	4. Chapter 4

-Two days later, Peyton, Lucas and their 4 year old daughter were boarding a plane for North Carolina.

-Lucas and Peyton were sitting calmly, well to the outside world it looked like they were perfectly calmed, but on the inside it was a whole other thing. Peyton kept going over possible worst case scenarios and Lucas was planning how they could get through the week while seeing the fewer people possible.

-Anna on the other side couldn't sit still. She was seated near the window with Peyton beside her and Lucas near the alley, well seated was exaggerating. She kept standing up and moving around so that she could see outside, from her seat she couldn't see a thing and that wasn't going well with her.

-"Anna could you just sit still for a few minutes. Just until the plane is in the air and then you can position yourself however you like." Peyton tried to calmed her down, the girl was exhausting to watch.

-"But mommy I can't see if I sit on the seat." She argued.

-"There is nothing to see princess. We're not even in the air yet." Lucas piped in.

-"But I want to see, and I'm too little." She kept arguing.

-"Weird how when we're home, we can't get you to sit on your booster seat because apparently your too big for it and now you would like one because you're too little." Lucas teased.

-Apparently she didn't think it was funny because she sent him a death glare that even her mother would be proud of.

-"It's not funny daddy." She said offended as he chuckled and Peyton hid her smile with her hand.

-Peyton saw that Lucas was about to retort something. He loved pushing Anna's button when she was in a bad mood just as much as he liked to push hers. Peyton didn't feeling like sitting in the middle of the argument that she could see coming so she interrupted him.

-"Okay, what about this. You sit there and stay still till we're in the air and then you can sit on me, that way you'll see outside okay?" She looked at the four year old to see if she liked the idea.

-Anna turned her head and looked at the wall for a few minutes during which Peyton had to cover Lucas' mouth with her hand to stop him from making a comment about her sulking. Lucas took advantage of the position and licked her palm with his tongue, he smiled when he felt Peyton shiver.

-"So not the time Luke." She reprimanded him, but the smile on her face told him that she did not mean it.

-"Why not, I always wanted to join the mile-high club, it's a big fantasy of mine." He gave her the best puppy-dog eyes he could muster.

-"In your fantasy, what do we do with our four year old. Because unless you can bring a sitter here that's not going to happen buddy." She whispered in his ear. There was no way she wanted Anna to hear and ask questions about what they were talking about.

-"We could ask an hostess." He suggested with a twinkle in his eyes and purposely grazing her earlobe with his lips as he spoke. Peyton had to take a deep breath to stop the shivers that ran through her but unfortunately he had seen it and chuckled.

-"You want to ask an hostess to keep an eye on our daughter while we have sex in the bathroom. Somehow that doesn't seem like such a great plan to me."

-Lucas was about to argue but luckily Anna chose this moment to stop sulking.

-"Okay, I'll sit on mommy but only because they put the windows too high. It's not because I'm too little." She sent Lucas a glare that was meant as a warning for him to drop it.

-He chuckled at her. He loved when she glared at him, she looked so much like her mother when she did. Speaking of, Peyton was now sending him one, warning him to let it go so that they could enjoy the flight and not have to deal with Anna in a bad mood.

-"Okay." He smiled at his wife. "You're not little, the windows are just too high. So would you just let your mommy buckle you up now." He smiled at her and once again Peyton had to laughed at how easy it was for Anna to completely forget that less than a minute ago she was mad at him when she saw Anna give her father a big smile before raising her arms so Peyton could buckle her seat belt.

-Peyton turned to Lucas. "Weird how she can never stay mad at you more than a couple minutes."

-Lucas laughed. "What can I say, it's my charm, apparently it works magic on Sawyer women." He laughed again as Peyton slapped his arm lightly. "What, it's true."

-Hours later as the plane was about to land Peyton had a sleeping Anna on her lap. She had been so excited once they were in the air, she had spent a good amount of time staring at the clouds and the grounds and asking questions that neither Peyton nor Lucas knew how to answer. Lucas had had to promise her that he would look on the internet to find out exactly how planes flew, because apparently his answer 'the motors keeps it in the air', wasn't elaborate enough.

-Anna had been so excited that she had completely crashed, over an hour ago, falling asleep on Peyton in the middle of a sentence.

-Once they were landed, Lucas got up and unbuckled Peyton and Anna. Anna had had a death grip on Peyton's neck so they had decided not to move her before the landing and had simply buckled her up with Peyton's belt.

-Once they were up Lucas whispered to Peyton. "Want me to take her?"

-Peyton looked at the sleeping girl in her arms and then back at Lucas.

-"No it's fine. I take her you take the luggage." She smirked at him as she passed in front of him on her way out of the plane.

-"Thanks a lot." He complained as he followed her out of the plane.

-Peyton laughed at Lucas as the two were walking toward the exit of the airport looking for her dad. She had definitively got the better end of the deal. Lucas looked like he was submerged by their suitcases. Lucas glared at her.

-"Want to tell why we need all of this, it's only for a week." He complained.

-Peyton looked at her husband once more, he was carrying four bags two of which were Anna's, add to that the school bag of things that apparently she absolutely needed, that Peyton was carrying, their daughter was definitely a heavy packer.

-"Don't look at me, only one of those is mine. Anna's the one with three bags."

-Lucas sighed, replacing the bags on his shoulders. "I blame Sara for that, just so you know."

-Peyton laughed. Her friend Sara had decided that it was part of her duty as godmother to teach Anna about clothes and the art of shopping as she had called it. Looking at Lucas, Peyton realized that maybe they needed to teach their daughter about efficient packing because otherwise Lucas would probably end up with a broken back before Anna became a teenager.

-They finally spotted Larry and walked toward him. Larry Sawyer was about to speak when he noticed the sleeping girl in his daughter's arms.

-"Long flight?" He asked kissing his daughter on the cheek and caressing Anna's hair before laying a kiss on her head.

-"Yeah. It was too much excitement for her, it drained her." Peyton explained.

-Larry nodded and then his glance fell on Lucas, he smiled.

-"Rake boy, I didn't see you there under all this luggage. My daughter is not working you too hard is she?" He asked sending a glare Peyton's way.

-"Not my fault, I took Anna, he took the bags that was the deal." Peyton argued.

-"It wasn't really a deal Peyt." Lucas argued.

-Larry laughed. "Come on Lucas, I'll help you out, give me one or two."

-Lucas handed Larry one bag. "Thanks a lot." He took a deep breath. "I was suffocating there."

-"Don't be a baby, it's not that heavy." Peyton teased.

-Larry smiled at the two enjoying seeing his daughter this happy. It had been the major difference for him since Peyton had had Anna, how easier it was for her to be happy and enjoy the smallest things in her life, the things that really mattered. He led the two of them out of the airport and to the parking lot.

-Peyton carefully placed Anna on the back seat and then turned to Lucas who had just finished putting their bags in the trunk.

-"Why don't you seat in front with my dad, have men talk. I'll sit in the back with Anna."

-"You sure?" He asked her stepping closer.

-"Yeah." She gave Lucas a short kiss before entering the back seat with her daughter.

-The closer they got to Tree Hill, the heavier the atmosphere seemed, or so it felt for Lucas and Peyton. Even Larry noticed it, the two young adults seemed gloomier.

-"It's going to be fine." He tried to reassure them but was only met with nods. Obviously they were not in the mood to talk so he decided to let them be and the rest of the car ride was spent in almost silence.


	5. Chapter 5

-The next morning Lucas woke up wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep. They had gotten to Tree Hill really late but because of the time difference him and Peyton weren't really tired so they had put Anna down in Peyton's old room and had went back downstairs to catch up with Larry for a few more hours and now they were paying for it.

-He looked beside him to see Peyton beginning to stir a little but he became worried when he realised that Anna wasn't in bed with them. Larry had offered to put her in the guess room but they had been worried that if she woke up in the middle of the night and didn't know where she was she would get scared. So, they had put her down on their bed and had decided that she would sleep in the other room the following nights.

-The panic he had been feeling at the absence of his daughter quickly subsided when he sat up and saw her sitting on the floor with what he assumed must have been one of Peyton's old sketch book. She seemed entranced flipping through the pages carefully. Lucas smiled and laid back down to see that Peyton was beginning to open her eyes. Before she could speak, Lucas pressed his finger to her lips and pointed to the floor where Anna was.

-Peyton curiously sat up wondering what Lucas wanted her to see, her daughter was looking through her old drawings, she smiled. Seeing that their daughter was busy Peyton laid back down wanting nothing more than to get back to sleep with Lucas, but it was too late her daughter had spotted them.

-"Mommy, daddy, you're awake. I've been waiting forever, I'm hungry." Anna spoke as she jumped on the bed and sat in between her parents.

-Lucas wanting to go back to sleep, took her by the shoulders and slowly laid her back down on the bed. Anna wiggled out of his grasp.

-"No daddy, no sleep, I'm hungry."

-"Arg." Lucas sighed and watched over to Peyton who was pretending to be asleep. "I know you're not sleeping Peyt."

-Peyton didn't move an inch. Lucas sighed not wanting to start his day this early, then he thought of something.

-"Okay, how about I make you breakfast and then we come back here and you let me sleep for a little while longer."

-Anna seemed to consider this for a few seconds. "Okay daddy."

-Lucas got out of bed and watch as Anna moved slowly toward him being unnecessarily careful.

-"Something wrong princess?"

-She looked up at him and whispered. "Mommy's sleeping daddy, I don't want to wake her." And then she slowly got out of the bed while Lucas glared at Peyton.

-"Of course not, we wouldn't want that." He mumbled at his wife only to see her pop one eye open and smirk at him.

-Lucas led Anna to the bathroom so she could brush her teeth and then the two of them made their way downstairs slowly. Anna had never been to Peyton's old house before and kept looking everywhere and making Lucas stop when there was something she wanted to see.

-They made their way in the kitchen to find Larry already up and reading the paper.

-Anna who hadn't seen her grandpa the night before ran to the older man.

-"Grandpa!" She yelled excitedly as he bent down and took her into his arms.

-"How are you beautiful?" He asked her.

-"I'm hungry but mommy and daddy they wouldn't wake up and now daddy's awake and he's going to make me breakfast." She explained happily.

-Larry glanced down at Lucas who looked exhausted and then at his granddaughter.

-"Lucas, why don't you go back to sleep for a little while, I'll take care of the little one." He said smiling at Anna, he really had missed her a lot in the few months he hadn't seen her.

-Lucas looked at him. "You sure? I mean if it's a problem…" He didn't want to burden his father-in-law his first morning here.

-"Yeah, it's my granddaughter it's not a problem. I'll make her breakfast and then we can watch comics until you guys are up."

-Lucas looked at his daughter. "Okay, but if she's any trouble just wake us up."

-"Daddy. I'm not trouble." Anna said offended.

-"Of course you're not. So what do you want for breakfast? I'll make you anything you want." Larry spoke to his granddaughter after Lucas had kissed her and was making his way upstairs.

-Lucas crawled back into bed.

-"You're dad's got her." He said knowing that Peyton would wonder how come it had been so quick.

-Peyton slowly opened her eyes and pretended to be rubbing the sleep off her eyes.

-Lucas laughed. "Cute, the 'I can't get out of the warm and comfortable bed because I'm asleep trick."

-Peyton smiled sheepishly at him. "Sorry, it's just it's so damn early." It wasn't really that early, it was 7 am, but for them who were still on pacific time, it was like the middle of the night. She buried her head in his chest as he protectively wrapped his arms around her.

-"You're lucky I love you." He joked as he kissed her hair.

-"I know." Their was no joking in her tone, she really meant it.

-A little over two hours later as Lucas got out of the shower he didn't feel tired anymore. It probably had something to do with the fact that he wasn't getting out of the shower alone.

-Peyton had been feeling guilty about leaving him to handle Anna on his own this morning so she had decided to break her 'no sex in the shower when Anna is awake rule'.

-Lucas wrapped his arms around her towel-covered body.

-"Just so you know, if this is how you repay me for taking care of Anna on my own, you can leave her to me anytime you want." He kissed her neck.

-"That was a one time thing Luke. It's a rule and remember why we came with that rule in the first place?" She reminded him.

-He didn't need to be remembered, the memory was still fresh. Definitively one of the most embarrassing moment of their life. It had happened about six months ago, Anna was busy playing in her room and Peyton and Lucas had gotten carried away and handed up in the shower. They had almost passed out in embarrassment when Anna had walked in the bathroom and asked them what the two of them were doing in the shower in the middle of the day.

-Lucas winced, not only had their daughter walked in on them, she had walked in on them while they were right at the heart of the matter. Later that day when they had spoken to Anna about it, Lucas had explained that he had been giving Peyton a massage when the little girl had come in. The little girl had accepted the explanation but sadly enough for them it hadn't been the end of the embarrassment because at one time about a week after that when they were with their friends, Anna had brought it up.

_Flashback_.

-The group of friends were hanging out in Lucas and Peyton's living room with Anna playing on the floor.

_-Sam's, Lucas best friend since college, complained. "God, my back is killing me, I think I pulled something." He said holding his side painfully._

_-"Maybe you should see someone about that, could make you feel better." One of their friend had suggested._

_-Suddenly Anna who had been listening from the floor spoke._

_-"You could have a massage, my daddy he gave my mommy one the other day in the shower and she felt better after, right mommy?" The little girl looked at her mother._

_-Lucas had almost choked on the water he had been drinking as Peyton blushed profusely._

_-"Yeah, I felt better." Peyton answered her daughter when she realised that Anna was expecting a confirmation, purposely avoiding eye-contact with any of their friends, who knew that what Anna had interrupted was definitively not a massage._

_-"A massage in the shower hein, just so we're clear Luke, what kind of massage was that?" Sam teased him seeing that Peyton and Lucas were clearly embarrassed._

_-"Nothing, can we just drop this." He asked looking over at Peyton who was looking at her shoes._

_-"Like you had to drop the 'massage' when your daughter walked in, right Luke." Liz made the quotes signs with her fingers as she spoke._

_-Lucas sent her a death glare._

_-"Oh come on Luke we just want some precisions, I know a few people who could be interested in this kind of massage." Sara joked and laughed when Peyton's head sprang up and she sent her a murderous glare._

_-Peyton hadn't had time to respond because Anna who had no idea what was going on and didn't like it decided to ask._

_-"Mommy, what's so funny?" The little girl asked curious and saw the nervous looked that passed between her parents._

_-"Nothing baby, they're just being silly." Peyton tried to close the subject._

_-Anna looked at her father for confirmation. He nodded._

_-"Yeah princess," he eyed his friends. "They're just jealous because your mommy got a massage and not them."_

_-Anna looked at him for a few seconds. "Then, why don't you give them one too daddy?" She asked innocently._

_-Lucas almost choked at her words, while Peyton sent him a glare that meant that he should have dropped it._

_-"Yeah Luke, Why don't you give us one too?" Sara joked._

_-End flashback_

-Their friends had embarrassed them about that for weeks, so Peyton had decided that there was no way she was risking that happening again, so she had made the rule. Sure, they still had sex in the shower, but only when Anna wasn't home or when they were certain that she was asleep.

-The two of them left the bathroom and started to get ready for the funeral that was to take place in an hour.

-They walked down half an hour later and found Anna and Larry comfortable on the couch watching tv.

-"Good morning." She told them. "You look pretty."

-At that Peyton remembered that with their little halt in the shower they had completely forgot that Anna wasn't dressed. Apparently Lucas must have just realised the same thing because he looked at her at that exact moment.

-"Peyt. Why don't you help Anna get dressed, I'm going to make breakfast and then we can go." He proposed.

-Peyton nodded and took Anna's little hand leading her upstairs to get dressed.

-They walked back down 15 minutes later and Anna twirled for her father as Peyton sat down and Lucas put a plate of eggs in front of her.

-"You look beautiful princess." He told her kissing Peyton on the cheek as she ate.

-Anna looked at her grandfather who was also sitting at the table and twirled again showing her dress.

-"It's new." She indicated her grandpa. "My aunt Sara, she took me shopping yesterday while mommy and daddy were at work and we bought it." The dress was black, but also had a white stripe at the waste, it was really cute on her.

-As soon as Peyton was done eating the three of them left for the funeral with Larry wishing them good luck. Peyton and Lucas only nodded nervously in anticipation. Anna on the other hand couldn't be more excited about seeing a new place and showing off her dress.

-The ride to the church was spent in silence except for Anna making comments on what she was seeing of the town and about how pretty she thought it was.

-When Lucas stopped the car at the church him and Peyton shared a look.

-"This is it." He told her.

-"Yeah." She confirmed sombrely.


	6. Chapter 6

-The three of them walked into the church, Lucas with Anna in his arms. They were a couple minutes late but the service hadn't started yet, so Lucas guided Peyton to an empty bench in the middle of the church. As they sat down, neither of them were really surprised that the church was full, everybody had loved Whitey.

-Lucas recognized a few guys he had played with in high school and nodded to them in acknowledgment. He was grateful that he hadn't seen them yet and was pretty sure that Peyton was thinking the same thing as she nervously glanced around them.

-Lucas kept Anna on his lap during the ceremony because she wanted to see what was going on. The service was pretty much over when things got more complicated. The priest asked if people wanted to volunteer to talk about Whitey. The church was silent for a few seconds until someone stood up and walked to the front of the church. When the man turned to address the audience, Lucas and Peyton recognized him immediately, it was Nathan.

-Lucas squeezed Peyton's hand reassuring her that everything was going to be okay as they listened to Nathan talk about how much Whitey had meant to him and then walked back to his seat. Following him with their eyes, they saw that he was seated with Haley and Karen and that Brooke was directly behind them.

-A few more people stood to testify of Whitey's character and Peyton noticed that Lucas looked agitated.

-"Everything okay Luke?" She asked concern.

-He looked back at her, "Yeah, I just, I feel like I should say something." He whispered to her.

-"Then you should." She encouraged him.

-"But if I do, then we have absolutely no chance to get out of here unnoticed."

-"Luke, we never based our decisions on them before, let's not start now. If you feel that this is something that you need to do, then do it, we'll deal."

-Lucas thought about it for a few seconds, looking between Peyton and Anna before making up his mind.

-"I'm going to do it." He decided.

-"Okay."

-When the priest asked if anyone else had anything to say, Lucas shot Peyton a look and she took Anna from his arms and sat her on her lap. She saw that he looked nervous.

-"Focus on me, okay. It's me and you, that's all." She gave him a smile.

-"And me too." Anna piped in from her spot on Peyton.

-Lucas smiled at his little girl and release Peyton's hand.

-"And you too", he confirmed before making his way to the front of the church, suddenly feeling better about the whole thing.

-Lucas made his way to the podium fixing his eyes right in front of him, refusing to even look for the people that he knew in a matter of seconds would know for sure that he was there.

Nathan's POV.

-Nathan was sitting in the church wondering what the priest was waiting for to continue the service when he saw him, his brother walking right past them. He knew everybody had seen him when he heard Karen whisper in shock, "Lucas."

-At that, Haley and Brooke turned to see where Karen was looking and they saw him too. He was older, seemed to have gain in muscle, and was more tanned, but he was still the same Lucas.

-Lucas, if he knew that they were there, was showing no signs of it, looking straight ahead of him and making his way right past them.

-He heard Karen ask Haley if she knew that Lucas was coming and heard Haley confirmed that she had had no idea.

-All of them were in shock at seeing Lucas right in front of them, well he wasn't really right in front, but he was definitely closer than he had been in the last 5 years. Karen looked like she was about to pass out, which he figured was normal since she hadn't seen or heard from her son in 5 years, ever since that weekend. As Lucas cleared his throat Nathan wondered how things could have gotten this bad.

-All of them listened intently as Lucas started to speak.

-"Hi, everybody. My name is Lucas Scott. When I met Whitey I was a boy who loved basketball, but who was scared of putting himself out there. Whitey convinced me to join the team and it changed my life forever. Not only did he teach me about basketball, but he also taught me about life. He taught me hard work, respect, team work, ethic, and so much more. He was such a huge influence on me and I can say without hesitation that without his guidance, I probably wouldn't be the man that I am today." Lucas took a few seconds to collect his thought and Nathan realized that Lucas hadn't once swept the crowd with his eyes, he seemed to be fixing a definite point.

-"What's he looking at?" The question had come from Haley who was sitting beside him with their 5 year old son. Obviously she had noticed it too.

-He tried to follow Lucas' eyes but couldn't figure out what he was looking at, so he went back to listening to his brother who was finishing his speech.

-"I'll keep Whitey and what he taught me in my heart always, so Coach, thank you for everything, you will be missed." With that he left the podium and pressed his hand on the coffin for a few seconds before walking back to his seat.

-All of them followed him with their eyes and when he sat down, they all realised what Lucas had been staring at.

-"Peyton", it had been Brooke who had spoken, surprise and shock evident in her voice.

-Even more surprising was the little blond girl who moved to hug Lucas as soon as he was seated.

-"A girl", Nathan turned to look at Karen who whispered in astonishment, not taking her eyes of her son, Peyton and the mysterious blond girl.

-Sure they knew that Peyton had been pregnant, how could they had forgotten, it was the reason why this whole mess had started, but none of them had heard about what decision Lucas and Peyton had taken about the baby, so they were all surprise at what they were seeing.

-"Oh my god." Haley whispered.

-End of POV

-Lucas made his way back to his family after his address and he could feel their eyes on him as we walked, but he kept his eyes on Peyton, as he had done during all his speech, and she smiled at him reassuringly.

-He sat down and was instantly greeted by Anna who transferred herself from Peyton's lap to his and turned her body so that she could hug him. When she pulled back she smiled at her dad.

-"Mommy said you needed a hug. Do you feel better daddy?" She asked him sweetly.

-Lucas looked at his wife and took her hand in his, bringing it to his lips and then looked back at his daughter.

-"Yes princess I do."

-Anna seemed to be satisfied with his answer because she turned back around and continued watching what was happening.

-He felt Peyton squeeze his hand and looked at her.

-"What you said was beautiful, I'm sure Whitey would have appreciated."

-"Thanks." He contemplated something for a few seconds before speaking again. "You know they're looking right at us right?" He asked interlacing their fingers.

-"Yeah." Peyton confirmed sombrely. She had known the second they had finally noticed her, she had felt their eyes fall on her the moment Lucas had gotten close enough from where she was sitting for them to see her. She refused to acknowledge their presence though focusing her attention on the end of the service and on Lucas' comforting hold on her hand.

-Both her and Lucas refused to make eye-contact with anybody as people started to leave the church to go to the get together that took place at the reception hall. They both felt the stares as the group made their way out of the church walking right passed them, but didn't attempt to make conversation which was fine with the couple.

-When it was their turn to walk out, Lucas wrapped the arm that wasn't holding Anna around Peyton.

-"Want to go to the cemetery right now or afterward?" He asked her.

-"Right now if you don't mind."

-"Of course." He agreed and led them out the door.

-Outside they came face to face with Skills who obviously had been waiting for them.

-"Lucas man, nice to see you and by the way, great way of making an entrance." Skills joked and shook Lucas' hand. He then turned to Peyton.

-"Hey Sawyer, missed you." He hugged her.

-"Hey Skills." Peyton greeted back, happy to see a friendly face. "How are you?"

-"Great great." He then to the little girl who was eying him curiously.

-"Hi Anna, Do you remember me?" He'd seen the little girl twice once at the wedding and the other one about 5 months ago when he had gone to L.A. on vacation and had dropped by the apartment to see them.

-Anna seemed to think about it and then he saw the smile that lit her face.

-"You're my Daddy's friend, I remember."

-"Great. So how do you like Tree Hill, your parent show you around yet?" He asked her.

-"No, not yet but it looks really pretty."

-Lucas and Peyton laughed as Anna started telling Skills everything about her life, after a couple of minutes Lucas stopped her.

-"Anna princess, you can talk to Skills at lunch, we need to go see your grandma Anna and your grandpa Keith remember."

-"Oh!" she turned back to Skills, "Are you going to be there?"

-"You guys coming to the get together?" He seemed surprised.

-"Yeah why?" Lucas inquired.

-"It's just that I didn't think you would, but cool I'll save you guys seats." He confirmed before leaving the young family and walking toward his car, not knowing that he had had an audience until he bumped right into Haley.


	7. Chapter 7

Nathan's POV

-We were all outside standing a couple feet from the parking lot trying to figure out whether or not to go talk to them when we saw them coming out of the church. Lucas had the little girl in one arm and was holding onto Peyton with the other.

-"I can't believe they're here." It was Haley who had spoken.

-"Yeah, they could have at least called us, you know, let us know." Brooke agreed angrily.

-"Why would they? They haven't made contact with any of us in 5 years, why would they start now." He spoke looking at his brother and his family.

-"Well I don't think it's personal, they haven't spoken to anybody from Tree Hill at all. If they had, we would have known." Haley answered him.

-Just as she said that, they saw Skills come up to them. From the way that they were interacting, they definitely had kept in contact. They all watched as Skills hugged Peyton and then started talking to the little girl. Nathan felt bad that he had no idea what her name was, the girl was his niece and he had no idea what her name was.

-"Apparently they have." He told Haley as they all watch their friend interact with the couple who had walked away from them so long ago.

-"I don't understand, I don't understand why they didn't at least call." It was Karen who had spoken and they had turned to look at her.

-"Well, I say we ask?" They turned to Haley who had started walking. Apparently, Skills was done talking and was now walking toward them.

-"Hales, I don't think…" Nathan tried to stop her.

-"I think we at least deserve to know how much he knows, and why he didn't tell us." She decided as she walked toward Skills followed quickly by Brooke and Karen. Nathan grabbed his son's hand and followed them, prepping himself for the onslaught.

-"Haley, what's up?" Skills asked obviously not aware that Haley was on the warpath.

-"Wrong answer." Nathan thought as he saw Haley send Skills a glare. He was used to that glare, Haley had used it on him profusely during their marriage and even now that they were dating again, after being separated for a year and a half, he was still on the receiving end of that glare pretty often.

-"What's up? You're kidding right? How could you hide this from me Skills, from us." She said.

-"Hide what." He looked like he had no idea what Haley was talking about.

-"Your relationship with my son, Skills." Karen clarified. She was angry that all this time he had known and had not once told her, she had been so worried. Her son could have been dead somewhere and she wouldn't have known about it.

-"Oh that!" He looked up nervously.

-"How could you lie to us for 5 years?" Haley continued.

-"Whoa." Skills caught on, "I've only been in contact with them for about a year. I had no idea about where he was or what he was doing until he called me a year ago asking me to be a groomsmen at his wedding. It's only after that, that I…"

-"Wedding." Karen was in shock, as were the rest of them. They knew that Lucas and Peyton had been mad at them, but to the point that they did not even tell them that they had gotten married, that was harsh.

-"Oh", Skills realised that he had disclosed information that maybe he shouldn't have. "Sorry, I didn't know that you didn't know about it. I mean I knew that you weren't there but I didn't know that…"

-"Skills", Nathan said to stop his friend from babbling.

-"When?" It was Karen who had spoken once again.

-"Last August, in L.A."

-Eleven months, they had been married for eleven months, Nathan calculated in his mind. His brother had gotten married and hadn't even bothered to inform him, that stung.

-"How was it?" Brooke asked with tears in her eyes. She had been Peyton's best friend for so long, she should have been there.

-"Hum, it was pretty big, about 150 people. Peyton's dad was there, he walked her down the aisle, and Anna she was the flower girl and…" Once again he was interrupted by Karen.

-"Anna?" She asked with tears in her eyes. This emotion was a little too much for her.

-"Oh! You didn't know about that either. Sorry. Yeah, their daughter, her name's Anna. She was the cutest thing ever at the wedding, she had everybody gawking at her."

-"Anna, like Peyton's mother." Brooke realised with a sad smile.

-"What's her full name?" Karen hated this, learning about her son through his friend, but it was the only way she had, Lucas was still mad at her.

-"Sorry, hum, her full name is Anna Lauren Scott. She was born May 22nd 2008." He decided that the more he told them the less likely they were to be pissed at him, well more pissed than they were now.

-"She just turned four." Realisation dawned on Nathan, he had missed his niece's whole life.

-"Where are they going?" He asked seeing his brother and Peyton walking in the opposite direction.

-Skills looked behind his shoulder at the couple before answering. "They're going to the cemetery. They want Anna to meet Keith and Peyton's mother."

-"Oh! Are they going to come to the get together? I guess they probably won't" Haley left her anger take over for a few seconds.

-"No, they're coming. I told them that I was going to save them seats." He confirmed and then immediately regretted it. Something told him that he should have kept that information to himself.

-"Great, We'll all sit together." Brooke decided. Her mind set on putting this whole debacle in the open.

-"Hum, look. I don't think that it's such a great idea and…"

-"We'll see you there Skills." With that Haley and Brooke walked off, leaving Nathan to troll slowly behind them with his son.

-Karen, her boyfriend of two years, and her daughter Sophie were the only one left and Karen gave Skills a sad smile before leaving too.

End of POV

-Lucas and Peyton stopped in front of Anna Sawyer's tombstone and Lucas put Anna down and then led her by the hand a little farther away to give Peyton some alone time with her mother. They watched as Peyton bent down and rested her hand on the ground, they could see that she was talking, but couldn't understand what she was saying.

-Anna seemed to understand the importance of the moment because she watched her mother in silence, Lucas was so proud of her, she had been extremely well behaved at the church and there she was observing her mother attentively, holding off her questions. Lucas bent down to her level.

-"Princess, I'm proud of you."

-"For what, I didn't do anything daddy." Anna said confused.

-"For today. You are doing great and your mommy and I we are really proud of you for that."

-"Yes we are." Lucas turned his head to find his wife standing slightly behind him, her eyes a little red, but with a smile on her face.

-"You okay mommy?" Anna asked seeing her mother's sad eyes too and walking toward her.

-"Yeah, I'm okay. Just a little sad, I missed my mom sometimes." She bent down and gave her daughter a hug. "Want to meet her?" She asked Anna and the little girl nodded taking her mother's hand and walking off with Lucas following closely behind.

-After they had visited both Anna and Keith, Peyton and Lucas sat on a bench with Anna ready to answer her questions. Anna had been great, she had said 'Hi', to both dead grandparents looking to the sky as she did. She didn't know much about death but she knew that heaven was up so that was where she had decided to look.

-"Anything you want to know baby?" Peyton asked watching their daughter closely. Anna had her eyes fixed on the sky for awhile now and that focused look in her eyes. Both her and Lucas could see the questions coming.

-"How do you know where they are, Grandpa Keith and Grandma Anna, the sky its so big?"

-Lucas looked at Peyton and saw that she looked stumped, he himself wasn't really sure how he was suppose to answer, but he gave it a try.

-"You don't. See the important thing is to know that they are both somewhere watching over all three of us. The place where they are, it's not a specific place in the sky. You're not going to see them by looking at the sky, but it doesn't mean that they aren't looking, we just can't see them." He hoped the answer was enough for Anna and apparently it was because she moved on.

-"Why did they died?"

-It was the question they had been dreading, since they themselves were still asking themselves that. They shared a look and seeing the pain in Peyton's eyes, Lucas decided to take that one too.

-"I don't know princess. I can't answer that. Nobody really knows why it happens, just that it does. Once it does, there isn't anything that you can do, but try to move on, make them proud." He said hoping that his uncle Keith was proud of what he had accomplished.

-"No", it was all she said as she straddled Peyton and buried her head in her mother's neck.

-Lucas and Peyton shared a sad look. This was one of the times where telling their daughter the truth sucked. Lucas moved closer and rubbed Anna's back as she cried.

-"Baby, what's wrong?" Peyton asked caressing her daughter's hair.

-"I don't want you to die mommy." She cried.

-"Hey, why would I die?" Peyton tried to comfort her.

-"Because your mommy died, your mommy she died when you were little too, you just told me. You can't die mommy." She buried her head in Peyton's neck and cried harder.

-Peyton let the tears that had been building fall, not knowing what to say to her daughter and feeling like crap about it. It had always been the last thing she wanted, for her daughter to feel the pain that she had felt when she had lost her mom.

-Lucas wanted to cry too, it was so hard watching Anna and Peyton cried he hated it, pretty much hated it as much as he hated the idea of losing Peyton.

-"Anna princess look at me okay, please." He pleaded with her.

-His daughter looked at him with tears in her eyes.

-"Baby, you know how much I love you, and you know how much I love your mother. As long as I live I promise you that I'm going to do everything I possibly can to prevent that from happening. And you know why? Because your mommy, she's my whole world, she's our whole world and I would never let anything take her away from us, you and I we need her too much. So, what do you say. Do you trust me to protect mommy for both of our sakes?" He asked the little girl seriously.

-Anna sniffled and brushed off the tears that were on her cheeks. "Okay daddy." She said as she moved to hug her father, thanking him for once again making everything okay.

-Lucas looked up at his wife as he hugged their daughter. Peyton was still crying a little, but her eyes showed how much she loved him for what he had just did.

-"I love you." She said through her tears and Lucas pressed his lips to hers sweetly, proving her that he had meant everything that he had just said. When they pulled back Anna was looking at them with a strange look.

-"What?' Lucas asked concerned.

-"I'm hungry daddy." And just like that the tension was gone. The couple laughed at how quick their daughter's mind was.

-"Okay, let's go." He stood up and took Anna's hand, Peyton taking the other one and the three of them walked to the car.

-As they closed the door of the car after Anna was safely buckled in Lucas looked at his wife.

-"You know that if anything's going to happen, it's going to happen there right?'

-"Yeah, I know. Let's just hope it doesn't" She said as she sat in the car and Lucas closed the door behind her.

-"Let's hope." He said to himself as he crossed to the other side and got in, driving toward the reception hall.


	8. Chapter 8

-Lucas and Peyton had been silently sitting in the car, in the reception hall's parking lot, for awhile now and Anna who had been patient till then had had enough.

-"I'm hungry!" Lucas and Peyton turned to look at her questionably.

-"Why are we sitting here, I'm hungry?."

-"We're not sitting here, we're going in, in a minute." Lucas argued.

-"Why not now?" Anna inquired.

-"Okay fine, let's go." Peyton decided summoning the guts to walk in there.

-"Yeah!" Lucas agreed less than enthusiast, sending his wife the best encouraging glance he could muster, which wasn't much.

-"Finally", Anna yelped excitedly as Peyton opened the door and let her out.

-Anna basically had to drag both of her parent to get them into the building and when they finally, they both wished that they hadn't.

-They were obviously the last ones there and defiantly made an entrance, everybody just looked at them at once.

-It got even worst for the couple when they finally spotted Skills and the only seats left in the whole place, at the exact spot they wanted to avoid, with them.

-"You have got to be kidding me!" Lucas muttered angrily.

-"What do we do now?" Peyton asked frozen.

-"We eat", Anna piped in from her spot in between her parents, obviously not catching the weirdness of the situation, "I'm hungry and there's food, just there", she pointed to the buffet that was in one corner of the room.

-The couple glanced at each other and then back to their little girl, not knowing what to say and conscious that they were the focus of attention.

-Lucas bent down to the girl's level and placed his hands on her shoulders.

-"Princess, you remember what we talked about, about what could happen once we got here, the people we could come face to face with?"

-Anna nodded slowly and Lucas continued.

-"Those people, they're here at that table where Skills is waiting for us."

-Anna seemed to get where this was going.

-"But I don't want to go daddy, I'm hungry and I want to talk with Skills."

-Lucas looked up at Peyton to see what she was thinking.

-"We can stay, be civil, be adults you know." Peyton suggested.

-"Yeah okay I guess." Lucas agreed. Seeing the nervousness in her parents Anna spoke up.

-"Don't worry, It's going to be okay." She reassured her parents and seeing that, it made them smile.

-"Thanks baby, now let's do this." He said to Peyton giving her a small smile.

-The three slowly made their way to the table with all eyes at that table set on them.

-Lucas was holding Peyton's right hand in his left and Anna's in his right when they finally reached the table.

-"Hey Skills, thanks for saving us seats." Lucas started deciding to ignore the others.

-"Luke, about that I…" Skills started guiltily.

-"It's fine", he looked at Anna, "Where do you want to sit Princess?"

-"Next to Skills." The little chimed excitedly as she climbed on the chair and sat herself down.

-"I don't think so." Peyton chucked at the sight of the little girl. "You can't even see above the table."

-Lucas looked around the place looking for something for Anna to sit on. Nathan seemed to notice because he spoke.

-"We got ours in the hallway over there." Pointing to the little boy that was sitting beside him and then to the hallway that was on the right corner of the room.

-"Hum thanks." Lucas said quietly giving his brother a nod while asking himself where the civility was coming from.

-"No, I don't need one daddy, I'm okay." The little girl argued.

-"Your mommy's right, you can't see over the table sweetie. How are you going to eat?"

-"But…" Anna started to argue not caring that everybody around the table was looking at her.

-"Unless you have a better idea you're sitting on that chair princess."

-Anna considered this for a second before looking at her mom.

-"I could sit on mommy." She made her best puppy dog eyes.

-"Hun hun, no you don't, that's not going to work."

-Anna pouted, "But it always works when mommy does it."

-Lucas chuckled a bit, it was true Peyton had made Puppy dog eyes into an art, there was no way he could say no when she used it on him and she knew it, and now apparently Anna knew too.

-"Well, your mommy's got a lot of years of practice on you, maybe in a few years." He kissed her forehead as the little girl kept on pouting.

-"I'll be right back." He told Peyton before walking away.

-"But mommy…"

-"You know you need it, so stop arguing please." Peyton pleaded.

-"But mommy, I'm not a baby." She whined.

-"Nobody said you were, but you're not tall enough to sit on your own either so until then could you just sit on that seat."

-"Okay, but I'm not happy about it", she pouted again.

-"Don't we know…" Lucas chuckled as he came back to the table and placed the seat on the chair and pulled Anna up sitting her on it.

-The heaviness of the atmosphere was palpable as they were all sitting at the same table facing each other for the first time in 5 years.

-"Mommy, can I eat now?" Anna asked realising that everybody had plates.

-"Yeah, I'll get you a little bit of everything." Lucas said and then looked at Peyton, "Anything in particular you want?"

-"I don't know, I'm not really hungry."

-"Alright, I'll improvise." He kissed her cheek and spoke in her ear. "I'll be right back, if anything happens just send a distress signal or something." He smiled at her once again and then went to the buffet.

Lucas was at the buffet filling in three plates when he came face to face with Nathan.

-"I figured you could use some help." Nathan said nervously.

-"I needed help 5 years ago, now I'm fine." Lucas said dismissively leaving with the three plates in hands.

-As they were all eating, Skills decided to try to ease the tension a little.

-"So Anna, what are you doing these days?"

-The little girl didn't have to be asked twice.

-"I'm taking dance lessons, my mommy takes me and she watches and she says that I'm really good and at the end of the summer we'll be doing a recital and all my family will be there and it's going to be really fun and I'm going to be very pretty in my costume." Anna started excitedly noticing the smiles everybody was giving her so she continued. "And daddy and I we're taking swimming lessons and I'm really good too and next time we go on vacation. I'm going to swim on my own."

-"So Luke, swimming lessons hein, I thought you knew how to swim." Skills joked.

-Lucas smirked at his old friend. "I do, but it's a beginner's class, they need a parent present." He smiled, his technique of pretending that they were not there seemingly working until one of them finally got tired of waiting for them to make the first step and went for it.

-"So, are we really going to all sit here and pretend we don't know each other?" Brooke tried to ask casually but it came out pleading. She had been doing what everybody else had been doing since then observing Peyton and Lucas and their little girls and wondering why they had left things deteriorate so much.

-"That was the plan." Lucas shot back after he recovered from the shock of finally being confronted.

-"Brooke's right, I'm done making it easy for you two." Haley backed her friend.

-"We're not doing this, not here and certainly not now." Peyton said coldly not wanting her daughter to get cross in the crossfire.

-"You don't get to decided this, you don't get to just drive back to California and leave us in the dark not again. I'm not going to let you take my son away from me again Peyton." Karen said her voice in a dangerously low tone.

-Lucas was about to argue but Anna interrupted.

-"We didn't drive we took a plane and it was really cool and we were really high." She said excitedly not noticing that the conversation was taking a very dangerous turn.

-"So you flew in, I guess it's nice of Larry to fly you in, it's probably the only way he sees you guys I guess." Karen was done taking it all in, she was angry and they needed to know.

Lucas sent a death glare to his mother and was about to say something when he felt Peyton's hand on his arm.

"Not now Luke, let's just go." She pleaded not wanting to get into this.

-"You're not going to keep my son away from me Peyton, I warned you."

-"Don't you dare speak to her like that." Lucas yelled at his mother, he couldn't understand how she could be so mean. "Come one Anna, we're leaving." He said as he pulled back her chair and took her in his arms. The little girl who had never seen her dad yelling before was too shock to argue or say anything.

-Peyton looked back at the table one last time sadly, wishing that things could have been different, before Lucas pulled slightly on her hand and she followed him out of the building.

-The group all stared at their leaving friends sadly and then heard Karen speak.

-"No, not again." She said angrily as she got up and followed her son and his family out the door. THe rest of the group stared at each others.

-"She's right, we can't let them leave again. Come on." It was Haley who had spoken and everybody else nodded before following her out of the door.


	9. Chapter 9

-Lucas and Peyton were almost to the car when Lucas felt someone grab his arm, he swung back and was faced with his mother, who from the looks of it wasn't happy at all.

-"You're not running away Lucas. I've let you get away with it before but not now, you've taken too much from me already."

-"From you. You're kidding right. Let go of me." He told her coldly, snapping his arm out of her grasp. Just at that moment he saw the rest of the gang now standing in front of him as well. He turned to Peyton and handed her Anna. "Can you get her in the car please, I'll take care of this." He said motioning to the group surrounding them.

-Peyton nodded slowly.

-"Oh no you don't Sawyer, or is it Scott now. I don't know seeing as I wasn't invited to the wedding. Congratulation by the way." Brooke spoke with disdain.

-"It's still Sawyer." It was the only answer she could come up with.

-"So, Peyton not confident enough to take his name, that's got to sting Lucas." Haley spoke.

-Lucas's head snapped back to Haley, What the hell had happened to her, he was about to defend Peyton but he saw from the look in her eyes that she was done letting them walk all over her.

-"Skills would you mind go sit with Anna in the car for a little while. There's some things that we need to take care of." She motioned to her and Luke.

"Mommy, are you and daddy going to be okay?" The little girl asked concerned.

-"We'll be fine baby, don't worry. We'll be right there. So Skills?"

-"Yeah sure." He took Anna from Peyton and the keys that Lucas handed to him and carried the little girl inside the car.

-Peyton watched them and as soon as Anna was safely in the car, she snapped.

-"Okay fine, you guys want to do this let's do this." She stepped closer to Lucas and the two shared a look.

-"First of all, you guys have no business being pissed off at us for staying away, it was all your fault remember." She spat at them.

-"Oh no it wasn't. You're the one that took my son away from me.If you hadn't gotten yourself pregnant just so you wouldn't loose Lucas, none of this would have happened. I was just protecting my son." Karen shot back at her but before Peyton could argue, Lucas intervened.

-"You weren't protecting me mom, you were trying to ruin my life, that's why I left. You were nothing like the woman who raised me, she would have understood, she would have been proud of me." He said sadly.

-" Proud? You disappointed me Lucas, I didn't raise you to be this kind of man, and I only had the best intentions."

-"Right? Excuse me if I don't believe you."

-"I raised you to be so much more Lucas. By now you could have been a best selling author, you could have everything you ever wanted, but you gave it up, and for what." She eyed Peyton.

-"Don't go there mom." Lucas warned, his blood boiling.

-"Why not it's the truth."

-"Stay out of this Haley." It was Peyton who spoke.

-"You must be happy right Peyton. You got what you wanted, Lucas all for yourself." Haley accused her.

-"This was never what I wanted, but you're right I am happy, but it has nothing to do with you. I never tried to keep him from you guys, you drove him away so keep me out of it." She glared at Karen.

-"And how did we do this?" Haley shot back.

-"You asked me to choose, you should have known better." It was Lucas who had spoken.

-"It's not what happened." Karen argued.

_Flashback_

_-Lucas walked into his mother's house not knowing how he was going to do this. He had to tell his mother that he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant and that he was leaving UNC to raise the baby with her in Los Angeles. He had already called Haley and told her and Nathan to meet him here, he thought it would be better to tell them all at once, so he walked into the kitchen to find them all waiting for him._

_-"Lucas, I was worried I hadn't heard from you in a few days, where were you?" His mother asked concerned._

_-"Hum", Here we go he thought, "I was in Los Angeles."_

_-"Luke, I know you miss Peyton, but it's the middle of the semester, you'll fall behind and flunk out if you keep missing classes."_

_-"I don't think you need to worry about that, I'm transferring school." He announced. He knew it was a little blunt but he figured better get it over with._

_-"What, why?" It was Haley who had spoken the question on everyone's mind._

_-"I'm going to go to school in Los Angeles, I already asked for the transfer and it got through."_

_-"Luke, I don't think that…"_

_-"Peyton's pregnant." There, he had said it._

_-"What?" They all exclaimed at once._

_-"Peyton's pregnant, we just found out, so I'm moving there to be with her." He explained._

_-"Luke, I can't believe this." His mom was in shock._

_-"Are you sure it's yours?" Haley asked and Lucas glared at her._

_-"You did not just ask me that?"_

_-"Luke, I'm sorry but she has a point. Peyton's been over there for months now, how can you know?" Karen asked._

_-"Because I know her and even if it wasn't mine, it wouldn't matter. I love her and I want to be with her. I can't believe you guys could think that of her."_

_-"How can we not Luke? Come on, you guys have been apart from each other for a long time now, maybe she thought that she was loosing you, figured that if she was pregnant you'd go back to her. She was right I guess." Karen said sadly._

_-"I can't believe this. How can you guys even think that. Peyton would never do that." He was more than angry now. He had expected them to be disappointed in him, furious even, but he never thought that they'd blame it all on Peyton, it wasn't fair._

_-"Lucas, I know that right now you want to do the right thing, but just for once I need you to do something for yourself, be selfish for once."_

_-"What are you talking about?" He asked nervously, he dreaded her answer._

_-"Don't go to Los Angeles, leave Peyton to handle her mistake on her own."_

_-"What? I would never do that. How could you even ask me that mom? You more than anyone else, after what Dan did to you." He told her accusingly._

_-"Lucas, maybe Dan wasn't the best role model, but when he walked away from me, he did what was best for himself and if things had gone a little differently, maybe all of his dreams would have come true. I want that for you Lucas."_

_-"I can't believe this. So now Dan's the moral guideline around here."_

_-"Luke, please, don't ruin your life only because you want to do the right thing." Haley pleaded with him as well while Nathan was just standing there not saying anything._

_-"No, I'm not going to turn my back on Peyton, never." He said decidedly._

_-"I can't let you do that Lucas, I can't stand back and let you continue the cycle. I gave up everything for you, I'm not going to let you do the same, sacrifice everything for a child that might not even be yours, that makes it even worst."_

_-Lucas took a deep breath trying to calm himself. He couldn't believe he was hearing this. Finally he couldn't take it anymore._

_-"I'm done. I'll come back later to pick up my stuff. Call me when you guys are back to your old selves." He said as he started to walk out the door._

_-"Lucas, if you walk out right now, if you make that choice, you're not welcome here anymore. I can't just stand back and pretend that I'm happy for you and watch you throw everything away, I just can't." Karen spoke with tears in her voice, she couln't believe that it was all happening again, that her life was going to become his. He was destined for so much more._

_-Lucas stopped dead in his tracks, she couldn't mean what he thought she meant. "Mom, please." He pleaded, he needed her through this._

_-"I mean it Luke, it's her or us." Karen reiterated._

_-Lucas sighed, shook his head and then walked out the door._

_End flashback_

-"You asked me to choose mom. What did you really think would happen? You were my mom, I loved you, but she's Peyton, I love her more than anything, plus she was carrying my child. I would never have forgave myself if I had done what you were asking from me. I would have been miserable without her. So if you're here because you want to hear me say that I'm sorry and that I made a mistake, you'll be disappointed. I never once regretted the choices I made. I have a wife that I adore, a daughter that I love to death and great friends who are always there when I need them. I'm not sorry, not at all." He finished taking Peyton's hand in his own and smiling at her.

-"You could have given us a second chance Luke." Haley argued.

-"What was I suppose to do, I tried to called you guys for a month. At some point I just had to accept that you weren't the people that I thought you were, not any of you." He eyed Karen.

-"We were mad Luke, you had just walked away from us without as much as I goodbye. I walked in your room the next day, it was empty. No note, no phone number, just emptiness, how was I suppose to react."

-"This wasn't about you mom. I was scared to death about becoming a father, I needed you to give me tips, tell me things were going to turn out okay, but instead you turned your back on me." He said accusingly.

-"And even after that, you had to make things worst by going behind our backs and tell Larry before Peyton could tell him herself. That was beyond low." He continued, not containing the anger anymore.

-"He was mad too, so mind explaining me why you don't hate him?"Karen asked furious as well.

-"Because, unlike you, he listened to us. He was mad, hell, when he knocked at the door, I thought he was going to kill me, but then he listened. We told him about our plans for everything and once he realised that we had things under control and that we were sure that it was really what we wanted to do, he calmed down. He accepted that in the end it was our choice not his." He said accusingly.

-"Luke, I…"

-"I don't care, not anymore. I made my choice a long time ago and I'm happy with it. Question is, can you guys say the same?" He asked, and with that he and Peyton walked back to their car, said goodbye to Skills and drove away.


	10. Chapter 10

-A few hours after the incident, as Peyton referred to it, the three of them were watching tv with Larry. After they had returned from the reception it had taken them awhile to convince Anna that what had happened wasn't her fault and that she didn't need to worry about them, that they were fine. Then they had had to explain everything again to Larry after he had witnessed their troubled state coming back. So, let's just say that after the day they had spent, a little peace and quiet was more than welcome.

-Suddenly, they were distracted from the tv by the sound of the doorbell. Larry looked at the young couple who were snuggling comfortably on the couch.

-"I'll get it, you guys just relax." And with that he started toward the door.

-"Grandpa", he turned around to see his granddaughter running toward him, "I'm coming too." He smiled gathering her into his arms as he walked to the door.

-When he opened the door he was taken aback by who he saw standing there, but recovered quickly.

-"What are you doing here?" He asked the boy. He hadn't seen him in years and after Peyton had told him why they were staying away from their friends, he hadn't wanted to.

-"I want to talk to them, apologize. Please mister Sawyer."

-"I don't know Nathan." The boy seemed sincere but he still hesitated. Finally, after looking at the pleading young man once again, he made up his mind.

-"Anna sweetie, could you go get your parents please." He asked the child as he set her down on her feet.

-Anna looked over at Nathan and then at her grandpa, who smiled reassuringly at her and then she nodded and ran back into the house.

-"thanks." Nathan said grateful.

-"Don't thank me yet, it doesn't mean that they'll listen to you." He said sternly.

-After a few moments, he was joined on the porch by his daughter and her husband, and from the way that they were eyeing Nathan, it was easy to see that they really didn't want him there.

-Peyton looked at Larry. "Dad, could you leave us for a few minutes please." Whatever was going to happen, she knew that it was between Nathan and them. Larry nodded.

-"Sure thing. If you guys need me I'll be inside with my granddaughter." With that he left the three young adults between themselves.

-Once he was gone, the three of them were left staring at each other until Nathan finally broke the silence and spoke.

-"Hey!" He said nervously.

-"Cut the crap Nathan. What do you want?" Lucas asked irritably.

-"I want to make things right, I want to apologize." He said sadly.

-"Well, I don't know if I want to hear it." Was Lucas' stubborn answer.

-"Please, just two minutes. If you want me to leave after, I'll leave I promise."

-"Fine." It was Peyton who had spoken and Lucas gave her a curious look before agreeing with her and nodding his approval.

-"Thanks. So, I don't really know how to start other than by saying I'm sorry, for everything. I never meant…"

-"To not say anything while my mother and my best friend tried to make me walk away from the best thing that ever happened to me." Lucas interrupted him, anger flaring through his tone.

-"I was shocked okay, I didn't expect it." He took a deep breath before continuing.

-"Look, when you told us, you really did not cut us at the best time. I was an eighteen year old college student with a wife and a baby to support. And even though I had help from my mom and yours, as well as from our friends, it was still really hard okay. Haley and I, we loved each other, we still do, but with everything else going on, James, as much as I love him didn't make things easier. We barely had time for each other anymore and it hurt our relationship gradually."

-"The little recap is nice, but what does this has to do with you turning your back on me?" Lucas said impatient to know where this was going.

-"When I heard you say that Peyton was pregnant, I realised that everything that I had went through and was still going through, you would have to deal with too. I didn't say anything because at the time I underestimated you, the both of you." He looked up at them.

-"What do you mean?" Peyton asked curious.

-"I thought about how hard it was for Haley and I, and then I thought about you guys. I made a mistake okay. I figured that you guys weren't going to make it, that it could destroy your relationship, and hurt your child a lot in the process. And then, then I heard what your mom and Haley were proposing and for a little while, I thought that maybe it could work, that maybe that way one of you could have the chance to realise his dreams. I was wrong okay, about everything and I'm sorry about that. I should have known that you guys could make it work, that your relationship was strong enough, but I didn't and because of that I lost the both of you, and my niece, and I'm really sorry about that too." He finished sad at the thought of how much he had missed from their life, all of their lives.

-Lucas and Peyton looked at each other assimilating what Nathan had just said. For so long they had wondered why and now they finally knew, well at least they knew why one of them had did it. Sure, it didn't make things easier, but it was a start.

-"Why?" Lucas finally asked. He needed to know before he could make a decision about what to do next.

-"I just… Haley and I, we were married, we were already fully committed to being together forever. We had already made that choice, so a baby, as sudden as it was, it wasn't that much off course you know, it was just a little early. But even with all of that going for us, being parents, being responsible for another life, after awhile, it started to drive us apart, we slowly became strangers and it took us a long time and a separation for us to get it back." He paused looking at the couple.

-"But you two, you weren't even that far in your relationship at the time. You were living on different sides of the country, each chasing after your own dreams. I didn't think you were ready to sacrifice them, or your relationship for a baby. I mean, you guys had done nothing but sacrifice what you wanted most for so long, and you were finally doing what you each wanted to do, I thought you wouldn't want to go back to sacrificing so much when you had barely started to live without having to. I figured if Haley and I were barely making it, then there was almost no chance that you guys would. I thought that it would make you both unhappy, which would have made Anna unhappy, and I didn't want any of that to happen. Obviously, I was wrong about that too. I realized it when I saw how great you seemed to be doing. So, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I underestimated you and for everything else. I hope that at some point you can forgive me, give me another chance, so I can make this right, but I can understand if you don't or can't. I just wanted to explain."

-It was silence between them and Nathan thought it meant he had his answer. He started going down the stairs when a voice stopped him.

-"I get it."

-Nathan turned around, surprised at Peyton who had just spoken. Seeing the interrogation on his face, she elaborated.

-"I can understand where you came from. To tell you the truth, I was pretty freaked out about whether or not I could be a good mom given my history as well. But you should have told us that, if you would have told us that five years ago maybe things would not have been so screwed up now. You guys hurt us a lot you know." She explained saddened. They had been carrying that around for so long.

-"I know, I'm sorry." He didn't know what else to say. He didn't know what could fix this.

-"I believe you, I truly do and I think that I can forgive you, try to get passed it you know." She continued.

-"Really?" To say that he was surprised was the understatement of the century. He had pretty much expected to have the door slammed in his face, so to hear her say that she could forgive him, he couldn't believe it.

-Peyton smiled at the boyish expression on his face. "Yeah, I've missed you."

-"Me too." Nathan smiled back, but it faded quickly when he looked at his brother.

-Lucas had a perplexed expression on his face and he kept looking between Peyton and his brother. He too hadn't expected her to forgive him that easily. Peyton seemed to sense it because she looked up, locking their eyes together.

-"I just think it's time Luke, we've been carrying that on our shoulders for too long. Beside, he really seems to mean it, and even though I don't really like what he did, his motives kind of make sense." Peyton told him calmly. She knew better than anyone how much Lucas had been hurt by all of this and she didn't want to push him into something that he wasn't ready for.

-He considered it for a few seconds and then his expression softened gradually. When he finally spoke, the anger was gone, all that was left was uncertainty.

-"Did you really think I was like him, that I could have just left and not look behind?" He asked fear evident in his voice. It had always been one of his worst fears, to end up like Dan.

-Nathan shook his head firmly. "Of course not, I never thought you were like him. I know you're nothing like him, I just… I made a mistake."

-Lucas nodded slowly and then he looked from Peyton to his brother and then to the closed door.

-"Do you want to meet your niece?"

-Nathan almost choked, this was defiantly the last thing that he had expected. Lucas was obviously very protective of his daughter, that much he knew from their brief encounter at the reception. He could understand, he was of his son, so for him to ask him that, it meant a lot. Realizing that his brother expected an answer he came back to his senses.

-"Are you sure? I mean I could understand if you weren't ready or if…" He babbled but Lucas interrupted him.

-"Peyton's right, it's been too long already, it's time to move on. I believe you when you say that you're sorry and I don't want to be the kind of man who holds grudges, it's not the example I want to give to my daughter. So, yeah I'm sure, but Nathan," He paused. "If you screw this up, if you hurt my family again."

-The threat was clear, Lucas didn't even have to finish his sentence. Nathan knew that if he screwed up again, there would be no words to describe what his brother was going to do to him, and beside, he didn't really want to know, he didn't plan on screwing this up. He really wanted to be part of their life, all three of their lives.

-"I won't." Nathan said, meaning it.

-"Good. So, you want to come in?" Lucas asked his expression serious, but with the anger in his eyes gone.

-"Yeah!" And with that he followed the two of them inside to meet his niece for the first time, well officially anyway.


	11. Chapter 11

-Nathan followed the two of them into the house. It had been such a long time since he had been here but still the place hadn't changed that much. Aside from the pictures of Peyton and her family, it was almost as he last remembered it. He figured Larry wasn't much of a home interior design guy. Finally, they reached the leaving room and he looked up to find Larry Sawyer coming toward him. Nathan almost expected to get hit straight across the face but to his surprise the older man extended his hands.

-"Nice to see you again Nathan." Larry had figured that if the young man had been invited in, then it must mean that her daughter and Lucas wanted him there, it wasn't his place to do anything, he trusted them.

-Nathan shook his hand with a stunned expression that made Larry chuckled before he spoke again.

-"I'll be in my office if you guys need anything." With that he left the three of them to stare at the 4 year old that was intently watching a kid show on TV, sitting on the floor.

-"Princess, you want to come here for a minute. There's someone your mommy and I want you to meet." Lucas told the little girl who in returned pouted a few seconds before going back to watching her show.

-"Anna", Lucas started with a stern tone but Nathan interrupted him.

-"It's alright, it can wait. I understand how hard it can be to tore them away from these, believe me." He smiled thinking about the number of times it had happened to him with James.

-"No it's not. She's more polite than that usually. Anna, we won't ask you again, turn the TV off and come over here right now." Peyton decided.

-Sensing that her mother wasn't playing around, Anna sighed a little before turning off the TV and walking toward them.

-"Sorry!" She said with her best puppy-dog eyes.

-Nathan laughed. "She's adorable. How can you guys not fall for those every time ?" He looked between his brother and his wife who both smiled looking back at their daughter, who loving to be called adorable was now using said puppy-dog eyes on Nathan.

-Lucas laughed. "It's alright princess. This is Nathan, he's my brother, which makes him your uncle." He turned to his brother. "Nathan this is our daughter Anna."

-"Anna Lauren Scott." The little girl said proudly extending her little hand to Nathan before hastily bringing it back and looking questionably at her parents.

-"But mommy, isn't he the man from before, one of those people that wasn't nice to us at the party?" She asked glaring at Nathan who visibly gulped. The girl might have been only four but she had her mother's glare which in Nathan's opinion made her quite threatening.

-Peyton and Lucas looked between themselves wondering how they were going to handle that, finally Peyton spoke.

-"Yeah baby he is. But see, he came over and he apologized and your daddy and I we forgave him, but if you don't want to talk to him, we can try again later it's alright." She reassured her daughter.

-They all watched as Anna seemed to go over what her mother had just told her.

-"Baby, remember a few months back. You know when you had that fight with your friend Chloe at daycare. You were really angry because she had broken one of your toys and then the next day she apologized. You remember what we told you then?" Peyton asked the little girl.

-Anna thought about it for a few seconds then she nodded before answering. "Hum hum, you and daddy you told me that if someone did something bad but that after they felt really really bad about it and said sorry, you said that if I believed that the person meant it than I should forgive her because…" she thought back a few more seconds wanting to remember the exact words her parents had used. "You said that when you forgive someone it shows a lot more about the person that you are than it does the person who said sorry." She finished proudly, it had taken her a while to understand what her parents had meant by that but now that she knew she was proud to repeat it whenever asked.

-Peyton and Lucas smiled proudly at their little girl while Nathan stood there impressed. Obviously his niece was very smart, with James they were pretty much still at the concept of right and wrong.

-Lucas bent down to her level. "So princess, do you want to forgive Nathan?"

-Anna looked from her father to her mom and then to Nathan before looking back at her father.

-"Can I think about it?" She asked quietly.

-"Of course. Take all the time you need. We'll be in the kitchen." He kissed his daughter's nose making her giggle before leading his brother and Peyton to the kitchen while Anna stayed in the living room.

-"Sorry", Lucas told his brother as the three of them sat in the kitchen.

-"Hey, it's alright. She can take all the time she needs. Besides with you two as her parents, no brooding would have been very surprising." He smiled at the couple who exchanged glances before Peyton playfully punched his arms.

-"Hey, I resent that. We do not brood." She argued, but the smile on her face gave her away. She had really missed that, arguing with her ex-boyfriend, now slash brother-in-law.

-"Of course you don't." He took a sip of coffee, "But you guys, she's adorable, you guys are very lucky." He said meaning it.

-"We know, but keep saying that and you'll have her in your back pocket in no time, she loves being called adorable, or cute, or pretty much anything else that is a compliment." Lucas smiled. Seconds later they were interrupted by Anna who walked in the kitchen and decidedly walked straight to Nathan.

-"Why didn't you want me to have a daddy?" She asked quietly, tears threatening to fall from her beautiful blue eyes.

-At that moment Nathan wanted nothing else than to have himself run over by a train, it would have hurt less than to watch the sad expression on the little girl's face and to hear her ask him that.

-Nathan looked helplessly at his brother and Peyton asking for any kind of help but figured form their expression that he was by himself on this one. He looked back to his niece and sighed.

-"It's really complicated." He started not really knowing what to say.

-Obviously Anna didn't like his answer because she glared at him and then at her parents.

-"Don't do that. Do not not tell her the truth because you think she wouldn't understand or that she's too young, it's not the way we raise her. Just tell her the truth, make it as simple as you can but tell her the truth, if she doesn't understand, she'll tell you." Peyton clarified.

-"Oh okay." He looked back at Anna nervously. "I never really thought of it that way and I'm really sorry that you did, I never wanted you not to have a dad, I just… I made a mistake. I thought that your mommy and daddy weren't going to be happy and I thought that maybe if your daddy stayed here, he would be happier, but I was wrong. Obviously you and your mommy make him very happy. So I'm sorry, I'm sorry if a hurt you in any way, it was never what I wanted. Do you think that you can forgive me." He pleaded to the 4 year old little girl. He had to admit it felt weird, he had never apologized to a kid before, well not for anything big anyway, he had no idea if he had done it right.

-Obviously he had because a few seconds later, Anna extended her little hand to him again, this time not pulling back. He shook it carefully smiling at her.

-"So, does this mean that you forgive me?" He ask not wanting to assume anything.

-"Hum hum." Anna nodded smiling back at him before looking back at her parent.

-"Is Nathan my uncle like uncle Sam and uncle Chris are my uncles?" The little girl asked confused. Sam and Chris were close friends of Peyton and Lucas and since they had known Anna pretty much her whole life, they were family, blood or not, it didn't matter.

-"Yes honey he is." Lucas confirmed smiling back at his brother. Peyton had been right, it had been too long.

-"So, you're my uncle?" The little girl asked Nathan.

-"Yup." Nathan smiled at his niece's expression, she was all serious.

-"So, can I call you uncle Nathan?" She asked shyly.

-"Of course you can."

-Anna thought about something before looking back up at her parents.

-"Mommy, daddy, can uncle Nathan watch a movie with us?"

-"Of course, but you might want to ask him first, he might have other plans." Lucas said looking back at his daughter with a smile, happy at how quickly she could go from upset to completely carefree.

-"Uncle Nathan, do you want to watch a movie, I'll let you pick."

-"I would love to, can I pick anything?"

-"Any of my movies." The little girl confirmed before taking his hand and dragging him into the living room.

-Nathan grinned at his brother and Peyton. "See, I get to pick."

-"Don't get too excited." Lucas grinned back.

-"Why?" Nathan asked getting a little nervous.

-"You'll see." Was Lucas' only answer as they reached the living room and him and Peyton both sat on the loveseat with Peyton sitting on Lucas' lap. Nathan sat on the couch that was right beside them and watched as Anna looked back at him from where she was standing facing the shelves with the movies her grandpa had bought for her. She looked back at him.

-"You choose, who's your favourite princess?" She asked him seriously.

-Lucas almost choked at the expression on his brother's face. It was so worth it, Nathan looked so confused, he had obviously no idea what Anna was talking about.

-"My what?" He asked looking from Anna to his friends, who were openly laughing at him.

-"Your favourite princess, you know a movie princess?" Anna clarified like it was the most simple thing in the world.

-"Hum, I don't know. I don't really know any." He said embarrassed.

-"How can you not know any princesses?" Anna asked scandalized at the idea that her uncle could know so little.

-"I don't know baby, but why don't you teach him." Peyton told her daughter laughing at Nathan. He had no idea what he was in for.

-Anna looked from her mom to her uncle and then clapped her hands happily.

-"Yay, don't worry uncle Nathan, I'll teach you." She looked at Lucas. "Daddy could you put Cinderella in please."

-"Of course." He got up, looking back at Nathan with a smirk while his brother looked completely clueless. "Boy, the guy doesn't have any idea what he just put himself in" he thought. "Cinderella it is" he say out loud as he took the DVD and put it in the player before going back to Peyton while Anna went to the couch sitting close to her new uncle.

-"Don't worry uncle Nathan, I'll explain everything." She told him seriously as the movie started.

-Nathan looked back at her oblivious to the grin the other two adults were sending him. He really had no idea how much Anna loved princesses, but he would know soon enough.


	12. Chapter 12

-Nathan was starting to get a headache, man this girl could talk. They had just finished watching the movie during which Anna had made it her duty to teach him everything she knew about Cinderella and princesses in general. He didn't know that there was that much to know to start with, hence the headache.

-In the last hour and a half, he had learned more than he ever wanted to know about princesses and princes, happily ever after, as well as dresses and all that stuff that went hand in hand with Disney movies. Boy was he glad that he had a son; he already loved Anna, the kid was adorable, but if there was one thing that he had learned in the last hour it was that he knew nothing about what little girls actually liked. Sure him and Haley babysat Sophie, Karen's daughter, from time to time, but as weird as it was, she wasn't into that kind of stuff, she liked relatively the same things James liked.

-"So, uncle Nathan, did you like Cinderella?" Anna asked him sweetly.

-Nathan was torn out of his thoughts by the question and looked back at his niece.

-"Yeah, it was fun." He saw his brother smirking at him and wondered how many times Lucas had seen that movie. Obviously a lot, because during the whole movie he had been making fun of how little Nathan knew about this stuff.

-"So Anna, who's your favourite princess?" He asked wanting to change the subject away from his enjoyment of the movie. Because, as much as he enjoyed spending time with his niece, it wasn't really his favourite movie genre.

-"Ariel." Anna answered without any hesitation. Apparently she had already considered the question.

-"Who's Ariel?" He asked confused.

-"Who's Ariel? Man, how can you not know Ariel?" Lucas smirked once more. He really was enjoying this, making fun of his brother.

-"Yes uncle Nathan, how can you not know who Ariel is?" Anna asked as if he had just grown a second head.

-"Sorry!" He was so out of his comfort zone in little girl world.

-"She's the little mermaid, Nate." Peyton clarified before Lucas could come up with any snide remark to embarrass his brother once again.

-"The What?"

-"Oh man, you're clueless." Lucas laughed, the expression on his brother's face was priceless.

-"Hey, I have a son, girl movies haven't come up yet." Nathan defended himself.

-"Ariel is not a girl movie." Anna argued offended at the idea. "My daddy, he's not a girl and he watches it and my other uncles too when I ask real nice." Truth was most of the time she had to practically beg for her uncles to watch that movie with her, but Nathan didn't need to know that.

-"I'm sure your daddy loves it." It was his time now to smirk at Lucas. "So, what's the story with Ariel?"

-Anna sighed theatrically which made all three adults laugh. "Uncle Nathan, you really need to learn more about princesses, it's really important." She said as if she was talking about the secret of life or something.

-At the precise moment Larry walked back into the living room.

-"I could lend you copies if you want. Before I got the originals I recorded a lot of them on cable." He suggested, knowing the importance of those movies in his granddaughter's life.

-"Thanks, that would help a lot." Nathan said grateful.

-"So, I see someone's going to spend a lot of nice evenings with the Disney Princesses ." Lucas joked. This caused Peyton to slap him playfully on the harm.

-"Don't make fun of him." She warned, which made Nathan grin at his older brother.

-After a really nice dinner during which he learned a little bit more about Lucas and Peyton and their life in L.A., and after agreeing to go with them around town tomorrow with Skills, Nathan went home with a pile of Disney movies which he was now in the process of watching.

-Lucas and Peyton had been great, they had been really nice with him, filling him in on some parts of their life. Sure it was easy to see that they were not trusting him completely yet, there was some things they weren't comfortable talking to him about, but he figured it would probably take time for them to fully let him in again, he had deserved for them not to trust him. But he was so grateful that they wanted him to be apart of Anna's life, that meant a lot and he really wanted the little girl to like him which was why he was really trying to get into The Little Mermaid, the movie that he was watching now.

-He was sitting on the floor watching the movie when the door opened and in came Haley, James, Brooke and Karen. They had probably went out to dinner and were now back for coffee or something, but obviously they hadn't expected to come home to find him watching a Disney movie.

-James came up to him followed quickly by Haley and the rest of the gang. "Daddy, why are you watching that?" The little boy asked confused. A sentiment that was mirrored by all the people surrounding him now.

-"Oh! Just catching up because apparently, I don't know anything about princesses." He smiled remembering Anna's expression when she had told him just that.

-"Why would _you_ need to know?" Haley asked the million dollar question.

-"Oh! Anna loves them, Ariel in particular." He answered truthfully pointing to the tv where Ariel was talking to some fish. He paused it, he didn't want to miss anything that could be important, well as important as a mermaid talking to a fish could be.

-"Oh, how did you learn that." Karen asked surprised that Nathan knew that about her granddaughter.

-"Lucas and Peyton, they introduced us. I spent the last few hours over there. We watched Cinderella." He said smiling. Normally, that wouldn't be something he would brag about, but he had loved spending time with Anna, and it was well worth spending a few hours watching princesses movies.

-"And how did you manage that?" Brooke asked confused. They had made it pretty clear earlier that they wanted nothing to do with any of them.

-"I went over there and I apologized, I explained why I did what I did and they forgave me, and then they introduced me to Anna, and she forgave me too."

-"Wait, you went over there, why?" Haley asked pointedly.

-"Look, this whole thing had been eating at me for a long time now. I never really wanted to loose Lucas or Peyton, and now, now that I now about Anna, I couldn't bare the thought that I wouldn't be part of her life because of some stupid fight. So, I went to Peyton's dad's house and I told them how I felt and I aplogized to all of them, including Anna. It went better than I had expected by the way."

-"Wait, you said you apologized to Anna too? Why? Why would a four year old need to forgive you anything. What did you do to her?" Haley asked, a little hurt that her husband had went behind her back, but still wanting to know more.

-"Not what I did, what we did." He motioned to all of them. "She knows. They told her the truth. She knows exactly why they left and why they're angry with us." He took a deep breath. "You know, when you guys said those things to Lucas, tried to convince him to walk away from Peyton, did you ever think about what it was going to do to Anna, because I sure as hell hadn't." He sighed controlling his emotions, "Do you have any idea how it felt to stand there and hear her ask me why I didn't want her to have a dad? It was horrible, I would have thrown myself under a truck if there had been one." He finished upset as he remembered Anna's face when she had asked him that.

-"Oh god. Why did they tell her?" Haley asked. To know that the little girl knew somehow changed everything. She had never meant to hurt the kid, as a mother it was almost unbearable to her.

-"Because they don't lie to her, about anything." He started. "When she asks questions, they tell her the truth, make her understand. I guess she must have asked and they told her." Nathan explained.

-"So, if she thinks that you didn't want her to have a father, why did she forgive you?" It was Brooke who asked.

-"She's smart, God she's smart, you guys should hear her speak, it's pretty impressive, and also they raised her well. They taught her that to forgive someone when they apologize and feel bad about what they did, it makes her a better person. That's why she forgave me." He said proud of his niece, at only four she could already teach all of them so much about forgiveness.

-"Isn't she a little young for that kind of lesson?" Karen asked wondering.

-"Like I said, she's really smart. I could tell from the way she said it that she knew exactly what it meant, and what it entailed, and she was so proud to say it too."

-"Weird how they can't apply that to us. You know, the forgiving part." Brooke argued.

-"Well that would imply you guys apologizing in the first place, but anyway they did me. I think that's the main reason why Lucas forgave me. I could tell from the look on his face that he didn't want to, but he said that he wanted to be a good example for his daughter, well that and Peyton influence sure helped a lot too."

-"Wait… You're telling us that Peyton actually helped you?" Shock was evident in Karen's voice.

-"About that... I think that we had everything wrong on this one, we really screwed up. Peyton never wanted to take Lucas away. Hell, if she hadn't said anything, Lucas would have probably shut the door in my face." Nathan concluded going back to watching the screen. "Now, if you don't mind I have a movie to watch." He said putting the movie on play again.

-"Can we watch it with you?" Karen asked. She needed time to process everything and she figured doing that watching her estranged granddaughter's favourite movie might somehow help her figure things out. All of them, they had always plagued Peyton as the bad guy in this whole thing and now for the first time she realised that maybe they really had been wrong about everything, that maybe she wasn't, that they were.

-"Sure." Nathan answered.

-They all seated to watch the end of the little girl's favourite movie, well except James who complained that as a boy he just absolutely couldn't watch these sort of movies and had left to play in his room.


	13. Chapter 13

-They all watched as the credits to The Little Mermaid rolled down the screen.

-"I just totally remembered why I used to love that movie." Brooke said excited.

-"Absolutely." Haley confirmed. "It's a love story and on top of that the songs are awesome. What's not to like."

-"I for one think that Anna was wrong, it is a girl movie. But it wasn't that bad." He adds when he sees the glare that Brooke and Haley send him.

-"So, want to watch another one?" He asks staring at the pile of tapes that he still wants to go through.

-"Yeah sure." They all agreed even Karen. It felt good to forget everything for awhile and pretend to be kids.

-Nathan stood up and put another tape in the player before going back to sit with the others.

-"What'd you put in?" Haley asked.

-"No idea."

-"Nathan!"

-"What? It's eventually always the same in the end, we'll see soon enough anyway." He adds and then goes back to staring at the screen.

-They all froze when they saw the image appear. Apparently it wasn't a movie. They could see what from the looks of it looked like a pregnant Peyton, sprawled on a couch and eating cheetos.

-"Peyton!" Brooke said unable to take her eyes away from the screen showing her old friend.

-"What's that?" Haley added confused about how a tape of Peyton could have ended up in the pile of Disney movies that were handed to Nathan.

-"No idea, but we probably shouldn't watch, it's private." Nathan intervened.

-"Don't you dare touch that remote." It was Karen who had spoken, her eyes fixed on Peyton.

-"But…"

-"She's right, I want to see too." Haley added and from the looks of it so did Brooke. He felt like he was probably not going to win that one. He considered taking the highroad and not watching the tape but his curiosity got the better of him and he stayed put.

-They focused back on the screen.

_-"So Peyt., how's pregnant life treating you?" A voice asked from behind the camera._

_-"Get that thing away from me Liz."_

_-"Come on, it's for prosperity."_

_-"Whose?" Peyton quips from her spot on the couch._

_-"Oh you're hilarious. Pregnancy hormones, they should really sell those. The baby's of course." The voice who was supposedly Liz answered._

_-"Why would the baby need you to annoy me?"_

_-"You know Peyt., that little miss sunshine attitude of yours is really appealing, I almost want hug you."_

_-Peyton glared at her._

_-"See, exactly my point. You're just adorable." The girl said sarcastically as Peyton glared once more._

_-"Hey guys!" A new voice was heard, followed by the camera moving to a tall brunette who had just come into the room. "What are you guys doing?"_

_-"Liz is annoying me." Peyton retorted. _

_-"I'm not annoying her, I'm making a pregnancy diary, you know for the baby." The girl behind the camera explained._

_-"him slash her?" The brunette asked._

_-"Stop calling my baby that Sara." Peyton glared._

_-"Oh come on. What else can we call it. You guys don't want to know the sex. What's up with that anyway? Don't we get a say in this?" She motioned toward her and camera-girl._

_-"Are you guys pregnant too?" Peyton asked sarcastically before continuing. "Beside, we wanted to be surprised and we already told the both of you that."_

_-"Again, what's up with that? You hate surprises and so does Luke, unless of course he's the one planning them." She winked at Peyton. "Speaking of, is it my turn to get one yet?"_

_-If looks could kill, that Sara girl would have been dead in seconds with the murderous glare that Peyton sent her way._

_-"Oh come on! One of him, three of us. You know where I'm going with this?"_

_-Peyton glowered at her once more making the other two laugh, a fact that she didn't appreciate judging from the look she sent them._

_-"Isn't there a pregnancy hormone for sense of humour?"_

_-"Guess not." She laughed when she was once again the target of Peyton's glaring ability. "You know if you keep doing that, it will stick that way." She joked. _

_-When she saw that Peyton still wasn't laughing she went for another approach. "So, about the baby, I have name ideas."_

_-"I'm not naming my baby after some designer." Peyton decided before even hearing her out._

_-"But Peyt. That would be so cool." _

_-"Fun, the name game again." Lucas said sarcastically walking into the room._

_-"Lucas. You're early." Sara stated._

_-"What? I've come too soon. You aren't done convincing Peyt to call our child after shoes yet." He retorted. _

_-"There's handbags too." She tried to argue but her answer was met by two sets of matching glare._

_-Lucas made his way to Peyton and bent down to kiss her softly on the lips._

_-"How was work?" She asked him, ignoring the camera._

_-"You know. Same old same old." He said with a sigh._

_-"Luke you know you don't have to do this? I could get a job too and…"_

_-"No you're not." He said determinately. "You already have one job and that's to take care of yourself and the baby, leave the manual labour to me. But if you really want to do something you could always…" He bent down and spoke in her ear and she giggled at what he told her._

_-He then moved his mouth down her face and took her lips with his, letting himself fall on top of her delicately as they kept making out._

_-The camera moved from them to a blonde girl, which they assumed must have been Liz._

_-"Now baby, let's give you your first pregnancy 101 class. See at first there's the throwing up, then there's the mood swings, and finally there's the increased sexual drive. You're parent they're doing it like rabbits, anytime, anyplace. I guess that explains how they got you does it?"_

_-She laughed as she received a pillow to the back of the head. "Hey"_

_-"Get that thing away from here and don't talk about our sex life, it's gross." Peyton said still below Lucas who was holding out another pillow in their direction._

_-"Oh come on!" She received another pillow. "Okay fine." And then the image faded to black._

-"They looked happy." Karen said sadly as the realization of how much she had truly miss started to dawn on her.

-"Yeah." Haley confirmed with a similar expression on her face before a new image appeared.

-The same two girls from before were on the screen with one guy beside them and someone else holding the camera. From the looks of it they were in a hospital.

_-"So baby it's us again. We're at the hospital waiting for you to appear. It's been over 20 hours now, and guess what you're taking you're sweet time coming." Liz started looking at the camera._

_-"Aren't delivery suppose to be quick. You know go in, scream, deliver baby, and then leave. It never takes more than 2 minutes in movies."_

_-"It depends on the pregnancy, some delivery can be extremely long." The guy holding the camera said._

_-"Thanks premed, you're really encouraging." Sara said sarcastically._

_-"Come on you guys think about it, it's Peyton we're talking about. It would be so out of character if her child just popped out, you know it would be way too easy." The guy sitting beside them argued._

_-"Well, from what we've heard it's the last thing from easy." Liz added._

_-"Yeah. I think she went bipolar in there or something. One minute she's screaming for Lucas to hold her hand, the next she's screaming that he's never going to touch her again. Poor guy's probably scarred for life." The guy said._

_-"Yeah but then again, we all know what's really going to happen. In no time they're going to be all over each other again." Sara laughed._

_-"Could you guys stop talking about my sex life in this thing." The camera moved to Lucas who had just walked into the room in scrubs._

_-"Luke! How's Peyton?" Sara asked worried._

_-Lucas' smile lit up the whole room._

_-"They're great."_

_-"They?" They all asked hopefully._

_-"Yup. Peyton and the baby."_

_-"She finally had it?"_

_-"Want to meet her?" He asked still smiling._

_-"Her? It's a girl?"_

_-"Yeah and she's beautiful, come on." He led them through the hallway and into a room._

_-They all walked in and the camera fixed on a clearly exhausted Peyton but with a smile as big as Lucas' as she held onto a little baby wrapped in a pink blanket._

_-"Hey Peyt. How are you?" Liz asked in a quiet voice._

_-Lucas walked to the side of the bed and kissed Peyton on the lips and his baby girl on the forehead. Peyton smiled at Lucas before answering, the smile still plastered onto her face._

_-"Great. You guys can come closer you know, she doesn't bite." She said seeing that her friends were huddled on the other side of the room._

_-They moved closer and the camera fixed on the baby girl. She was beautiful._

_-"She's beautiful Peyt."_

_-"Thanks."_

_-"Did you guys pick a name?"_

_-"Yeah we did and sorry she's not going to be name after shoes. We chose Anna. Anna Lauren Scott." Lucas said smiling down at his baby._

_-"It's a beautiful name guys."_

_-The room was silent for a few seconds, all of them looking at the baby until Lucas and Peyton shared a look and then she looked up at them._

_-"Guys." She motioned to Liz and Sara. "There's something that we want to ask you."_

_-Peyton paused and Lucas took over._

_-"You guys are our closest friends and the people we trust the most and we were wondering if you would be Anna's godmothers."_

_-"Godmothers?" They both asked surprised._

_-"Yeah. We know it's suppose to be one of each, but we asked and apparently it's possible. You guys can totally say no, but we would like to make you two Anna's guardian as well, you know in case something happens to us. That way we'd know she'd be with people that we trust." Lucas finished seriously._

_-"Oh my God!" Liz exclaimed._

_-"So?" Peyton asked nervously, they didn't really have a plan B in case they said no._

_-"Yes! Of course." The both agreed after sharing an excited look._

_-"So, can I hold my goddaughter?" Sara asked happily._

_-Lucas and Peyton shared a look and then without a word Peyton handed Anna to Lucas who carefully walked to the girls and handed her to Sara who held the little girl preciously._

_-"Oh my god, my goddaughter's beautiful." She said looking down at her with a big smile._

_-"Yours? She's mine too. Can I hold her now?" Liz asked her friend._

_-"Hum hum, it's still my turn." Sara smiled keeping a hold of baby Anna as Liz pouted and the new parents shared an happy look._

-"I can't believe the delivery was that long." Haley said silently thanking God that her delivery was way quicker.

-"Why'd you think they were that concern about choosing Anna's guardians right away?" Brooke asked staring at the static now on the screen.

-"Yeah, James' five and we still haven't done that stuff yet. Have you?" She asked Karen who shook her head.

-"Well they probably wanted to be prepared. I mean think about it, they both lost so much it's kind of normal that they would consider the possibility of something happening to them. And if they hadn't had those forms filled and something would have happened to them then Anna would have ended up with either Larry, you Karen, or me. I'm pretty sure that those options weren't that satisfying to them." Nathan thought out loud. Looking back it kind of made sense.

-"Is there anything else on the tape?" Haley finally asked after a few minutes of silence where nothing new had appeared on the screen.

-"Just let me see." He pressed fastforward.


	14. Chapter 14

-Over the next few hours they watched Anna's christening, 3 birthday parties and Peyton and Lucas' graduation. In all those events they had to admit that Lucas and Peyton looked remarkably happy together. They seemed like the perfect family and appeared really close to their friends who always seemed to be around. They got to see Anna grow through those birthday tapes and saw how much of an happy kid she was. Seeing that only made the guilt that they were starting to feel toward the situation increase and they were starting to feel really bad about trying to keep them from having that.

-They were certain that the tape was done and that there was nothing else to see on it when suddenly a new image appeared. The image was more steady than the previous ones and the recording seemed professionally made. They froze when they realised that what they were seeing was the inside of a church.

-"Oh my God! It's their wedding." Karen voiced what they had all just realised.

-They watched as Lucas, two guys that they had come to know were named Sam and Chris, as well as Skills, walked in from the side of the church, all wearing tuxedos, and went to stand by the altar.

-Then from the back of the church they saw the bridesmaids walk in.

_-_The first one they didn't know, but the other two were Sara and Liz

_-All three of then made their way to the front of the church and hugged Lucas before standing at their designed spot on the other side of the altar._

_-Next came Anna, who they had to admit was really the cutest thing ever. She looked precious in her light blue dress that made her deep blue eyes pop. She had everybody in the church gawking at her as she carefully made her way to the front dropping rose petals as she went. She definitively was cute. She waved to all the people that she knew and Lucas was so proud of her you could see it in his eyes as he watched her come toward him. He bent down to her level when she finally reached him and hugged her._

_-"You're really pretty daddy."_

_-"You too Princess." He smiled at her and then released his hold on her and she walked back to stand with Sara and Liz on the other side._

_-Then finally, the back doors opened again and Peyton and Larry walked in._

_-Peyton was beautiful. Her hair was loose on her shoulders and she was just glowing in her strapless white gown._

-"Brooke you okay?" Haley asked seeing the confused expression on her friend's face and the way she was staring at Peyton.

-Brooke snapped out of her thoughts to look back at Haley and nod. "Yeah I'm fine." She said going back to watching her best friend make her way down the aisle with her father. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

-"Brooke!" Haley something was wrong.

-"The dress. It's one of mines." She said shock still evident in her voice.

-"Oh!" It was all Haley could say as her eyes went from the screen to Brooke over and over again. None of them had ever really learned much on what had happened between the two friends. One day Brooke came back to Tree Hill and announced that her and Peyton were done. She had never said anything more than that. A month later, Lucas walked away from them. They had never learned the truth about what had happened. Only Brooke and Peyton knew, maybe Lucas, she wasn't sure.

-Back on the screen, as Peyton was continuing to make her way down the aisle, her and Lucas had their eyes locked on each other, both with a big smile on their face.

_-They saw Peyton mouth an "hi" and Lucas a "you're beautiful" when they were finally face-to-face._

_-They only broke their gaze with each other when Larry kissed his daughter on the cheek and hugged Lucas._

_-"Take good care of my little girl Luke." Larry told him with a smile._

_-"Always." Lucas answered seriously sharing a look with Peyton who beamed of happiness._

_-Larry smiled again at the answer and went back to sit on his seat._

_-The couple looked at each other deeply and smiled, it was finally happening. Lucas reached for Peyton's hand and brought it to his lips._

_-"You ready?"_

_-"I've been ready forever Luke." She smiled back at him and with his hand firmly holding hers, the two of them walked up the steps to stand in front of the priest that was going to marry them._

_-The ceremony was beautiful and Lucas and Peyton had kept their eyes on each other the whole time. Finally came the vows and the priest announced that the couple had written their own. _

_-Lucas was first to go. He took a deep breath and nervously turned so that he could be facing her completely. He took hold of her other hand, he already had been holding the other one from the beginning._

_-"I love you." He started. "I know that since I'm a writer, eloquence is kind of expected but I think that those three words are really the only ones that need to be said. I love you Peyton Sawyer. I could stand here and say so much more than that. I could go on forever citing what I love most about you, but you already know all of those things. I could say so much but like you taught me so long ago, what matters is not what you say it's what you do." He smiled at her and saw that she was smiling back at him through the tears that were forming in her eyes. "We've been through so much together and through all of it I've always known that you're the one that I love the most. I love you. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. So right here, right now, I'm going to make you only one promise. I promise you that for as long as I live, my actions will always show you how much I love you. Here, in front of our friends and family, I promise that I'm going to love you forever, you and our beautiful daughter. I love you, you two are all my life." He finished a few tears rolling down his cheeks as he saw the look of complete adoration in Peyton's eyes as she too cried tears of happiness._

_-The priest waited a few seconds before indicating to Peyton that it was her turn._

_-Peyton squeezed Lucas' hands willing the tears to stop so that she could speak properly._

_-"I love you. I love you so much, you have no idea. You saved my life Luke. Before you came along I didn't believe in anything. I had lost so much that I thought that it was all that life was about. But you, you stormed into my life, well in front of my car technically." She smiled remembering the time when she had almost ran him over. The night that had changed her life forever. She smiled again when she saw that he was remembering too. "You saved my life in every possible sense of the word from that moment on. You came in and you taught me to believe in myself, in others and most importantly in love. You make me happy. Everyday you make me happy, more happy than I ever thought I could be. For all that and for so many other reasons, I love you Lucas, more than you'll ever know and I promise you right now that I'm going to love you forever Lucas Scott." She finished repeating the words that she had told him 5 years ago when there was so much that was uncertain about their relationship, knowing that she still meant those words with all her heart. She looked into his eyes and saw so much love, she still couldn't believe that it was all for her._

_-Afterward they exchanged the rings and then finally the priest made the very awaited announcement._

_-"I declare you now husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."_

_-Lucas didn't have to be told twice. He stepped forward and brought her flush against him as he descended his lips on hers for their first kiss as a married couple. When they pulled apart the happiness was shining from their eyes._

_-"Ladies and gentlemen I present you mister and misses Lucas Scott." The priest announced and everybody stood up and clapped their hands in congratulation._

_-Lucas took hold of one of her hands once again as the two of them started to make their way down the aisle._

_-They were about halfway through when Anna caught up to them and Lucas bent down to pull her up into his arms._

_-"Congratulations." She said. Dutifully repeating the words that her aunts had told her to say._

_-"Thank you baby." Peyton said emotionally._

_-"Can we go now?" The little girl asked looking at both her parents. "Aunt Liz she said that there were going to be dancing after church and I want to dance."_

_-Lucas and Peyton shared a look and laughed before nodding and finally leaving the church._

_-The reception obviously hadn't been shot because the last shot was a picture of the wedding party standing outside of the church and then everything went back to static._

-"Oh my god! That was such a beautiful wedding" Haley declared wiping tears from her eyes.

-"Yeah. But we should have been there." Brooke argued.

-"Yeah." Karen confirmed sadly.

-"Huh guys. Not that I want to crash your moment of epiphany or anything, but what am I suppose to do with the tape. Obviously they didn't want us to see it." Nathan piped in.

-"Why not?" Brooke tried to argue but Nathan sent her a "Huh Duh" look.

-"Why not just give it back with the others and pretend that you didn't know it was there. They'll never know we saw it." Haley suggested.

-"What? You want me not to say anything?" Nathan said offended.

-"Look Nathan, I want to make things right, I really do. But I also know my son, if he thinks that we invaded his privacy, he's never going to even hear us out." Karen tried to convince him and apparently it worked.

-"Fine. But if they figure it out, it's all on you. I'm not going to lose them again because of your scheming.

-"So we agree? Nobody says anything about us seeing the tape." Haley confirmed and Nathan and Karen nodded.

-"Brooke!"

-"Yeah I'm not going to say anything." She finally conceded. Little did they know that Brooke had another thing in mind.


	15. Chapter 15

-No matter what happened in his life, good or bad, there was always a time when he would feel like all was perfect, that everything was exactly how it was meant to be. That time was when he was laying down in bed holding his wife in his arms. This morning as he lies in bed in her father's home in Tree Hill and those things he had grown accustomed to are starting to change, he doesn't feel scared or nervous. The feeling of her hands on his chest as she sleeps and her slow breathes that caress his neck. It's all he needs to know that his life is exactly how it's meant to be.

-He's happy to have Nathan back in his life, he missed having a brother, but he's not naive either. He knows that after five years without contacts and with each of them having their own lives clear across the country from each other, that their relationship is never going to be what it was when they were in high school. He knows that it's going to be different but he's not worried, as longs as he has Peyton and Anna with him, he knows that they can handle everything.

-He remembers when he got that phone call almost 5 years ago. He was in his dorm room at UNC working on a paper when his phone had rang.

-Flashback

_-He looks at the screen and smiles._

_-"Hey you! I was hoping you were going to call. I miss you." He smiled._

_-"Luu-ke." Peyton sobered on the phone and instantly his smile faded. It was replaced by a feeling of dread, he hated hearing her cry and he hated it even more when he couldn't physically comfort her like now._

_-"Peyton, baby what's wrong?" He asked concerned._

_-"Luke, I, I'm Sorry." She managed to utter through her sobs._

_-"Hey, it's alright. Calm down okay, I'm right here just tell me what's wrong baby." He tried to calm her down even though his whole being was dying to find out what happened. God he hated this long distance thing, normally he would have been able to calm her down simply by holding her into his arms but now all he could do was try to talk her through it and it sucked._

_-He kept repeating these soothing words to her until he heard that she wasn't sobbing anymore and that her breathing was steadier._

_-"Peyt, tell me what's wrong please." He begged. He couldn't take this; standing there in his room 3000 miles away from her and knowing that she was hurting and yet not knowing why, it was killing him._

_-"Luke, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She said again, her voice wavering._

_-"What are you sorry for Peyt?" He asked worried. His first fear should have been that she had cheated on him but he knew that Peyton would never do that. For her to be this upset he knew that something must have been very wrong, and it was killing him not to know what._

_-"I never meant for this to happen Luke, you got to believe me." She pleaded._

_-"Whatever it is, I believe you Peyt. Please just tell me." He tried once again._

_-"I'm... I've been getting sick lately, I thought that it was just a bug but it won't go away and now I'm late... I'm so sorry Luke."_

_-"I, I don't understand. What do you mean by late." He stammered. Some part of him knew exactly what she was talking about, but the bigger part of him wasn't ready to deal with that yet, hence the denial._

_-He heard her take a deep breath and then she spoke again. "I think that I might be pregnant Luke, I'm so sorry."_

_-There was no denying it anymore, she had said it, and it was out there. Now it was his turn to take deep breaths. The word 'pregnant' kept ringing in his head over and over again. He was terrified, him and Peyton certainly weren't ready to raise a child. He had seen first hand how hard it was from watching his brother, Haley and his mom, and he had no idea if he would be able to do it, if they could do it. They were living 3000 miles away from each other for God's sake._

_-Apparently he had been silent for longer than he had thought because next thing he knew Peyton spoke again._

_-"Luke. Please say something." She said her voice wavering with tears._

_-He snapped back to reality. Peyton, she was going through this too._

_-"I'm sorry, huh, I just zoned out there for a second." He explained. There was another pause before something came to him._

_-"Wait, what do you mean 'think'?"_

_-"Oh!" She paused, "I didn't take the test. I'm so scared Luke." Her voice was so small, so sad. _

_-"I'm on the next flight." He had no idea where that had come from. One minute ago he was terrified, scared to death of all of this and now he was running toward it. All he knew was that Peyton was scared and that he needed to be there for her, he would deal with his own emotions later. Right now getting to her was all that he could think about._

_-"Luke you don't ha..."_

_-"I want to be there Peyt. I'll be there before morning."_

_-"Luke..."_

_-"Wait for me alright." He decided, determined to stop her attempt at stopping him from going._

_-"I'm sorry Luke." She cried._

_-"Hey, don't okay. You did nothing wrong. We'll figure it out I promise." He reassured._

_-"I love you."_

_-"I love you too. I'll see you in the morning." With that he closed the phone and started packing, his paper left completely forgotten on the desk._

-End flashback

-Lucas looked down at his sleeping wife. He never thought that night when he had gotten the call that everything would have turned out so perfectly. Sure it hadn't been easy, far from it in fact, but everything that they had gotten through it had made them stronger both as a couple and as individuals. It had taught him that as long as they had each other, there was nothing that they couldn't handle. It's that confidence that allows him to be able to be so calm about being here in Tree Hill again and being surrounded by all these people that hurt him so much in the past. He knows that everything will turn out fine.

-He looks down at her again when he feels her begin to stir.

-"Hey!" He says sweetly when her eyes finally open and land on his. He presses his lips to her forehead.

-"Hey!" she answers groggily. "Is Anna awake?" She asks looking back at the clock.

-"I don't think so. She had a big day yesterday, she was exhausted."

-"Yeah I know. So, how do you feel about all of it, we didn't really get a chance to talk yesterday?" It was true after Nathan had left; they took Anna to the park, showed her the Rivercourt and then had put her to bed, which had proved difficult. Anna had been way too excited and had refused to go to sleep, it had taken them close to two hours to finally put her to sleep for the night. Afterward they had been too exhausted to do anything else and had fallen asleep almost instantly.

-Lucas brought her to rest completely on top of him, tightening his hold on her waist as she rested her head on his muscular chest. She loved it there, loved hearing his heartbeat. After what had happened their senior year of high school, it was never something that she took for granted. Each beat was a blessing to her.

-"I don't really know. It wasn't really in the plan you know. I guess I never really thought that things could change, that one of them would want to make things right. I don't know what's going to happen now."

-"What do you want to happen?" She asked again, her hand drawing patterns on his naked chest.

-"I don't know. I got used to the way things are you know. I'm happy, things are great, and I just don't know if change is going to be such a great thing."

-"It's not really going to change you know. Sure, Nathan is in our life right now, but only to a degree and we get to decide how involve he's going to be. We can start slow, see how things go and then we'll go from there."

-"Yeah. It's just hard you know. I get it, I understand he only wanted the best for me and I forgive him, but it doesn't erase all that happened either. I don't know if I'm going to be all to forget everything and start anew."

-"Nobody's asking you to Luke. What happened, it's always going to be there. No amount of time is going to erase it. All we can do is try to get past it, see how it goes."

-"What about the others?" Lucas asked his voice harder at the thought.

-"What about them?"

-"I mean it's kind of weird. How do you think we can deal with them? I mean with Nathan back into our life we're bound to see them more often, Haley at least. I just don't know how we're suppose to act."

-"Oh! I hadn't really thought about that." She visibly tensed and Lucas strengthened his hold on her.

-"Hey, we'll figure it out alright. We always do." He reassured. He loved how one second it was her comforting him and the next it was his turn, they completed each other so well.

-"I know. It's just, everything is so complicated."

-"It wouldn't be Tree Hill if it wasn't." He kissed her hair, smiling at the thought.

-"Yeah, I'm kind of glad not to be here full time though. I'm not used to all the drama anymore, it's exhausting." She smiled too.

-"Yeah?" He smirked. Seeing her questioning expression he laughed and then quickly turned them over so that he hovered above her. "Why don't we rest some more then?" He flirted.

-She giggled at the playfulness and desire that she saw in his eyes. She loved that about them. The simplicity with which they could talk about everything and then flirt their way into the physical expression of their devotion toward one another. It was flawless.

-"Somehow rest is not the word that comes to mind when you look at me like that." She breathed.

-"What does come to mind?" He said lowering his head and attacking her neck with his lips. He heard her moan quietly and smirked. "That's what I thought." He moved from her neck to her lips and Peyton welcomed it happily, instantly opening her mouth to invite in his tongue, which he quickly granted.

-Peyton wrapped her arms around his torso, feeling every inch of skin that she could reach. No matter how many times they did this, she never got tired of the feeling of his skin on her, it was thrilling.

-Lucas lowered one hand and started to caress the skin just below her thank top slowly making his way higher on her abdomen, his mouth never leaving hers.

-The two of them were starting to get carried away. Peyton's thank top lay discarded by the side of the bed, as did his boxers when they heard a knock on the door.

-They instantly froze and Lucas quickly wrapped the covers around them, scared that her dad would open the door and walk in on them half naked, well completely naked for him.

-"Who is it?" He asked nervously. Him and Peyton sharing a worried look at the thought that it might be her dad.

-"It's me daddy." They heard from the other side of the door and instantly they relaxed. Anna they could deal with, it wasn't uncommon for her to interrupt them, they were used to it.

-Lucas smiled, bent down to kiss Peyton once more quickly before getting up. He found her thank top, threw it at her quickly and then reached for his boxers. When he was done, he looked back at Peyton to see that she was dressed and then made his way to the door. God bless Anna's politeness he thought. They would have had so much more awkward situations if she hadn't loved to knock so much. He was truly grateful for it.

-He quickly opened the door to find his daughter holding Jack, her stuffed monkey. She never slept without it. He smiled down at her and bent down to take her into his arms.

-"Good morning Princess." He kissed her cheek. "How did you sleep?"

-"I'm tired daddy." She wined resting her head on his shoulder as he carried her back to bed.

-"Why aren't you asleep then." He asked setting her down on the bed between him and Peyton.

-Anna curled up into her mother's side. "Too much light." She wined again, her face completely buried in Peyton's neck.

-"Oh!" He looked at Peyton who smiled sheepishly at him; they had completely forgot that there were no drapes on the window of the other room. "Sorry Princess." He cooed.

-Two minutes later she was back asleep and Lucas and Peyton were talking quietly about their day. They had gotten used to Anna interrupting their moments so it was no longer that frustrating for them when it happened, they knew that their would always be time to try again later. Right now they had no problem just laying there with their daughter.

-They were going to spend the day walking around town with Skills and Nathan and afterward they decided that they were going to take her to the beach. It was one of their favourite spot and they wanted her to see it, beside she would get to go swimming too, they figured it was a great plan.

-A little over two hour later, Anna was awake and they were getting breakfast when the phone rang.

-"Hello?" Peyton answered uncertain. Her dad was out at sea for the day and she didn't know who would call for her.

-"Peyton, hey it's Nathan."

-"Oh hi Nate. How are you?" She asked happily.

-"Great. I was just wondering if it'd be okay with you guys if I brought James along today. Haley's going shopping with Brooke and the babysitter..."

-"It's fine Nate, I get it. We'd love to meet him anyway, bring him alone. Don't forget his bathing suit though, we were thinking of going to the beach this afternoon." She said her eyes meeting Lucas questionably. She relaxed when she saw him smile. For a moment she hadn't known if Lucas was okay with James tagging along but his smile told her that he was definitively okay with it.

-"Great. I'll see you guys in an hour." With that they both hung up and Peyton sat back down with her family.

-"So, Nathan's going to bring James along." She announced.

-"Cool." Lucas said excitedly. One of the worst things about the fight had always been not to be able to see his nephew and now he was thrilled that it was going to change.

-Anna though, didn't seem happy about this change of plan at all.

-"But mommy..." She pouted. She wanted to spend the day with Skill and her uncle Nathan and now this other boy was going to be there and she didn't like it.

-"I'm sure you two are going to have a lot of fun baby, he's only a year older than you."

-"But..."

-"You're going to be nice princess." Lucas warned. As an only child, and the only kid in their group of friend, Anna was used to getting everybody's attention all the time and she didn't like the times where she didn't. They had had some problems with that when she had started daycare, but thankfully she had adapted quickly. He only hoped that the same would happen with James.

-"Okay." Anna finally folded. "But uncle Nathan's going to play with me too right?"

-"Of course baby and you will even be able to tell him all about princesses again. You wouldn't want to miss that right." Lucas smirked but it quickly faded when he saw the look that Peyton was giving him. He gave her his best puppy dog eyes and smiled when he saw her laugh quietly, she never could hold out long against his secret weapon.

-He got up and put their dishes in the sink before standing behind Peyton and wrapping his arms around her. He kissed the top of her head.

-"Take a shower, I'll get her dressed." Peyton raised her eyebrows at him.

-"Hey! I can do it you know." He argued, but a smile grew on his face as she kept her eyes on him doubting him.

-"Yeah, he can do it mommy." Anna piped from her chair in front of her mother.

-"Sure he can. And when I'm going to walk out of the shower you're still not going to be dressed because you took forever to choose what to wear and your daddy let you."

-Anna laughed at her dad who was wearing a faked insulted expression on his face. She too knew that this was how it was going to go. The very few times when Peyton had asked him to help Anna get dressed in the morning, it had been exactly what had happened.

-"You know it's true."

-"Not this time. It's going to be different I promise."

-She looked from him to Anna and laughed at both of their expression. Anna might look a lot like her but she still had a lot of Lucas and this was one of those times where it was jumping at her. Their expressions were identical, it was hilarious.

-"Alright, but if you fail then..." She smirked seductively at him and he knew what she meant. No need to be more explicit in front of the 4 year old.

-"I'll make it worth your while." He breathed into her ear, smiling when he felt her shiver. "Come on princess, let's prove mommy wrong." He said kissing her lips one last time before taking Anna by the hand and leading her out of the kitchen.

-"Please try, but you'll see I'm never wrong." She smirked.

-Lucas stopped and looked back at her. "We'll see." And with that him and Anna were out of the room.


	16. Chapter 16

-Nathan looked down at James who was shooting hoops at the Rivercourt while they waited for Skills, Lucas, Peyton and Anna to get here. Haley had been slightly upset when he had told her that he was going to spend the day with Lucas and Peyton and that she wasn't invited but she had understood that he wanted this to work and that her showing up wouldn't help, so she had decided to go shopping with Brooke instead. She knew that she would have to confront Lucas and Peyton at some point, but she could wait, she didn't want to screw things up for Nathan.

-"Hey buddy. Come here for a second." He told his son.

-James caught the ball and ran to meet his father. "Yeah dad."

-"You're going to be nice today with Anna, okay?"

-"But daddy she's a girl and I don't even know her." He complained.

-"You saw her yesterday at the reception and she's not a stranger, she's your cousin." He explained.

-"But Sophie's my cousin." James argued.

-"Sophie is grandma Karen and uncle Keith's daughter, Anna's my brother Lucas' daughter. She's your cousin, so be nice." Nathan warned.

"But daddy..."

-"No but. Got it?"

-"Okay! Can I go play now?" He whined.

-"Sure." Nathan agreed sighing. James was at the age where girls were avoided like the plague. The only reason him and Sophie got along was because they were practically raised together and had a lot in common. Him and Anna had neither of those things. He just hopes things were going to go well between the two kids.

-He spent the next couple of minutes watching his son before Skills arrived and the two friends shared a manly hug.

-"Hey man!" Nathan said to his old friend.

-"Hey! So, you and the kid coming along for the day. I was stocked to hear it." Skills said excitedly.

-"Yeah, we talked things out yesterday and they invited me. It's cool with you I hope." Nathan didn't want to impose on Skills' time with their visiting friends.

-"Nah it's cool. I'm glad you guys are back on."

-"Yeah. James come on and say hi to Skills." Nathan said to his son who was so caught up in his game that he hadn't seen Skills come up to them.

-The little boy looked up and saw Skills and came running toward them and a few minutes later the three of them were shooting hoops together when they saw a car pull up.

-They watched as Lucas got out and opened the door to Anna who jumped out of the car and started to run toward them.

-"Huh huh. Come back here. You know the rule, it's not safe for you to just run off." Lucas stopped her, she sighed and started walking back as Nathan grabbed James and him and Skills made their way toward the family.

-"But Daddy, they're just there and they're not even strangers." Anna whined as she walked back to the car where Peyton and Lucas were getting things from the trunk.

-"No but. You stay here." Peyton answered and Nathan smiled. Kids really were all the same.

-"Hey kiddo!" Nathan smiled to the little girl. She was about to run to meet him but stopped and looked back at her parents. When she saw Lucas nod she ran to meet the guys.

-Nathan put James on his feet and took Anna into his arms. He hugged her before setting her down.

-"Hi uncle Nathan." She completely ignored James who was standing beside his father with a similar expression on his face and jumped into Skill's arms. He hugged her and kissed her head.

-"Hey girlie. How you doing?"

-"Good. We're going to the beach later and I'm going to swim." She explained excitedly.

-"I know I'm going too."

-"Really?"

-"Yup and your uncle Nathan here is coming too, isn't that awesome."

-She looked back at Nathan for confirmation and smiled when she saw him nod.

-"Hey!" They looked up to see Lucas and Peyton, hand in hand, walking toward them. Lucas had a backpack on, probably with stuff for Anna, Nathan thought. He had one similar filled with stuff for James.

-He moved in and hugged Lucas and then Peyton.

-"Hey! How you guys doing?" He smiled. It felt so good to be like this again, hanging out with his friends.

-The couple shared a smile. "Great. You?" Peyton asked.

-"Great."

-He then watched as the couple moved to hug Skills who in the meantime had dropped Anna on her feet.

-After the couple had greeted Skills they both looked down at the little boy standing quietly beside Nathan.

-"James. This is your uncle Lucas and your aunt Peyton." Nathan said excitedly. He had hoped for this moment for so long it was awesome to have them be in his son's life again.

-"Hi James." Lucas smiled, bending down to the little boy's level and extending his hand, "Nice to meet you."

-"Hi." The little boy said shyly.

-"Hi! It's great to see you again. Last time I saw you, you were barely a few months old. You're so cute." Peyton smiled when she saw James grimace at the compliment. Obviously cute wasn't something he liked to be called.

-"Say thank you buddy." Nathan laughed at his son.

-"Thanks aunt Peyton." The little boy said after rolling his eyes at his father.

-"Good. And last but not least James this is your cousin Anna. Anna, that's my son James." He introduced the two kids who looked warily at each other.

-"Anna." Peyton warned.

-"Hi!" The little girl told James, clearly not thrilled.

-"James." It was Nathan's turn.

-"Hi!" He paused before speaking again. "You look like those dolls in the stores that say stupid things."

-"No I don't." Anna argued offended.

-"James!" Nathan reprimanded. "Apologize now!" This was just a great start for the day.

-"But daddy, it's true."

-"No it's not and you're ugly." Anna fought back.

-"Anna!" Lucas said sternly. The little girl looked sheepishly at him before mumbling an apology to the little boy, who smirked in response.

-"James, I'm not kidding." Nathan warned.

-"Fine. I'm sorry." He finally apologized.

-"Good. Now it'd be great if you guys could get along." Nathan continued, eyeing James warily.

-"Yeah." Lucas agreed smiling at Anna who was hiding behind Peyton.

-"Buddy, Anna's she younger than you and she's never been here before so it'd be great if you could look out for her." Nathan tried another tactic.

-"Because she's a girl and she's little and she needs someone to protect her?" James asked his father hopefully. He loved how in the movies the older brother would look out after the younger siblings. He had wanted to do the same but he didn't have any brother or sister much to his dismay and Sophie kept saying that since she was older than him, it was suppose to be her job, which he didn't like much either. Maybe he could get to pretend with his new cousin.

-Nathan was about to answer when Anna spoke from behind Peyton.

-"I'm not little." She argued.

-"Your more little than me." James shot back.

-"Am not."

-"Yes you are."

-"Okay that's enough. See you guys are already arguing like brother and sister. So why don't we head out." Lucas suggested knowing that with how stubborn Anna was they'd probably be stuck here for the rest of the day if he didn't do something about it.

-Peyton nodded after sending a warning look to Anna who got the message and stopped arguing but not before shooting James a last dirty look.

-The guys both agreed as well and soon the group was on its way toward the streets of Tree Hill.

-A few minutes afterward, Anna tugged on Lucas' pants.

-"Daddy I'm tired. I want up." She wined.

-The group stopped and Lucas bent down to Anna.

-"But we just started."

-"My legs, they're smaller than yours you know. I get tired faster." She explained all serious.

-"Yeah, because you're little." James smirked causing Anna to send him a dirty look.

-"Am not."

-"Am."

-"No"

-"Yes."

-"No."

-"Okay enough you two." Nathan warned thinking that if these two kept at it, it was going to be a very long day.

-"Come on princess." Lucas bent down and took Anna into his arms closing the argument between the two kids as the group started walking again.

-Two hours later as lunchtime neared, they had been almost everywhere around town. The kids have been arguing pretty much all morning, but they were starting to get the feeling that they were enjoying it, which was reassuring.

-The kids were walking a little ahead of them when they heard them arguing again.

-"No, she's not."

-"Yes she is."

-"No..."

-"Daddy." James forcefully pulled Anna with him toward their parents. "I'm hungry and I wanted to go eat at Grandma's cafe but Anna she said that she's not her grandma. She's wrong right daddy?" The little boy looked up expectantly at his dad who froze and looked back at his brother.

-Lucas and Peyton both had an unreadable expression on their faces.

-"My grandma she's in heaven." Anna argued before looking up at her parents.

-"Mommy?"

-"Yeah baby, your grandma's in heaven. James' talking about your daddy's mommy." Peyton clarified.

-"But she's not my grandma?" Anna asked uncertain.

-"No she's not." Lucas finally spoke. He then looked at James who had a lost expression on his face. "See, me and your grandma got into a fight a long time ago and we don't talk anymore. That's why she's not really Anna's grandmother." He explained to the little boy who then turned to his father.

-"Is that why I hadn't seen uncle Lucas and aunt Peyton before?"

-Nathan sighed. "Yes buddy. Me, your mommy, aunt Brooke and grandma did something really stupid a long time ago and that's why you never met them before." He felt bad, if it hadn't been for them screwing up James could have grown up with Lucas and Peyton around, yet he hadn't and he felt responsible.

-"But everything's okay now?" The little boy asked hopefully.

-"Not completely, but it's really complicated. Just know that you'll get to see them and your cousin for now on, I promise."

-"Okay daddy." The little boy agreed and the gang fell into and uncomfortable silence until Anna spoke.

-"See, I was right." She smirked at James, and everyone laughed; the girl sure could loosen up a situation.

-"Anna!" Peyton chastised, but with a smile on her face.

-"Sorry." She said and than pulled her tongue at her cousin before speaking again. "Can we go to the beach now, I'm hungry and I want to swim."

-The adults all laughed at her antics.

-"Sure baby, let's go." Peyton agreed taking the little girl's hand and leading her back to the Rivercourt with the rest of the group tagging along.

-"You okay?" Nathan asked his brother, as the two of them were walking together, James and Skills trailing behind and Anna and Peyton slightly ahead.

-"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

-"Just because you know... What James asked earlier..." Nathan started hesitantly.

-"Oh! It's fine. I'm all past that you know. Things happened, it doesn't matter now."

-"Sure?"

-"Yeah. Come on let's go to the beach." Lucas said enthusiastically, closing the discussion.

-"Sure, let's go."


	17. Chapter 17

-They had all stopped to eat at a local dinner on their way to the beach and to every ones' surprise the kids had barely argued during lunch and now they were all enjoying the beach.

-"Mommy, mommy I want to go now." Anna whined as Peyton was struggling to help her put on her floaters.

-"Just a minute, you're almost done."

-"Put I don't even want to wear them, I can swim you know, I'm taking lessons." Anna argued proudly.

-"I know baby but you're not done with your lessons yet and it's safer this way."

-"But I don't want to. He's not wearing them." She complained, pointing at James who was already playing in the water with Nathan and Skills.

-"He's older."

-Anna scoffed.

-"Baby, the faster we do this, the faster you can go play." Peyton tried to resonate with her. Anna rolled her eyes but nonetheless raise her other arm so that Peyton could pull on the other floater.

-"So, you ready?" Lucas asked Anna coming from behind Peyton and wrapping his arms around her waist as he kneeled behind her at Anna's eye level.

-"You're wet." She stated as she felt the cold water trickled down from his body and unto hers.

-"It's what happens when you go in the water." He deadpanned kissing the curvature of her neck as Peyton finished pulling on the floater.

-Peyton only rolled her eyes. "There. You're ready baby." She told Anna.

-"Thanks mommy." Anna said before taking off running toward the water.

-"Whoa! Slow down there tiger. You need to wait for me remember." Lucas laughed getting on his feet as Anna turned around to face them and pouted.

-"I'm coming." He laughed. He turned to his wife. "You sure you don't want to come in?" He asked helping her to her feet.

-"Maybe later. Now go on, she's waiting." She laughed pointing at Anna who was glaring at them with both of her hands on her waist. Lucas looked back at their daughter and laughed too, she was so cute when she was angry.

-"I'm coming." He told his daughter. "I'm dragging you in there later, it's a promise." He told Peyton kissing her lips gently.

-"Sure, but I'm still holding on what you promised me this morning. Just so you know." She said loudly to his back as he jogged to meet Anna.

-"I always pay my debts." He smiled and she laughed picking up her sketchbook and sitting down on the blanket.

-She had been there for almost an hour relaxing and sketching the beach when she once again felt strong arms wrap around her waist.

-"Drop this, I'm kidnapping you." He said huskily into her ear.

-"But Luke…" She complained half heartily but nonetheless dropped her pad.

-His only response was to pull her up on her feet and swiftly take her into his arms.

-"Luke put me down." She laughed as he started walking them toward the water.

-"Not a chance." He said into her ear, breaking into a jog.

-She yelped in surprise when all of a sudden Lucas dropped her into the cold water.

-"That's so not funny." She laughed when her head emerged from the water.

-"You should have seen your face." Her husband laughed swimming toward her.

-"I'm so getting you for this." She threatened him, laughing nonetheless.

-"Mommy, mommy look." She turned to see Anna sitting on top of Nathan's shoulders as James was on Skills' and the two kids were splashing water at each other.

-"Wow." She smiled at her daughter, she was having so much fun. She never got tired of seeing that smile on her face.

-"It's great hein?" She turned back to her husband who had snaked his arms around her.

-"What?" She asked a little distracted by his wet, almost naked, body.

-He brought her closer and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he paddled softly to keep them afloat.

-"Her having this much fun, here." He clarified his hands drawing patterns on the small of her back.

-"Yeah. Maybe we were worried about nothing." She smiled.

-"Yeah, she's having fun and her and James almost get along now." He said kissing her cheek and making his way to her ear.

-"You know, your incredibly sexy like this." He murmured huskily in her ear.

-"Hum, you mean wet and almost naked." She raised her eyebrows seductively at him as he kept kissing her neck.

-"Yup. If we weren't in public I…"

-"Okay stop right there." She laughed, stopping him from elaborating. "We ARE in public. Hands where I can see them." She chastised him playfully.

-He pouted and she laughed again. "There's going to be plenty of time for that later." She smiled.

-"I'm going to hold you to that." He said before taking her lips with his.

-"They look happy." Nathan stated looking at the couple kissing in the water. Him and Skills were a little farther away watching the kids as they raced.

-"Yeah, I know. There so cute, it's sickening." Skills joked.

-"What are you looking at uncle Nathan?" They turned to see Anna who had swam to them and couldn't understand what they were looking at.

-"Oh! Nothing. Your mommy and Daddy."

-"Why?" She asked sweetly as Nathan took her into his arms. For her, there was nothing particularly interesting about her parents.

-"They look happy." He answered a little sad at the fact that he had missed so much in their life.

-Anna looked at him with a puzzled expression, obviously not understanding why he had said that, but then realized something and swam in direction of her parents.

-"Mommy mommy." She called as she swam. The young couple pulled back slightly to look at their young daughter and they smiled, she was swimming so well.

-"What's up princess?" Lucas asked taking her into his arms when she reached them.

-"I want ice cream." She stated and they shared a smile, laughing at how random that had been.

-"Go play with the boys, I'll go get it with her." Peyton told Lucas as she took Anna from him.

-"Come on baby, let's go." She told Anna releasing her.

-"I'll be right back." She told Lucas giving him a small kiss before swimming back to shore with Anna.

-"Everything okay?" Nathan asked his brother as Lucas swam to them and they saw Peyton and Anna swim toward the shore.

-"Yeah. Anna wanted ice cream." He explained ruffling James' hair.

-"Oh okay." Nathan nodded.

On the beach, Peyton wrapped a towel around her daughter and pulled out the floaters before wrapping another towel around her waist and grabbing her purse.

-"Okay, ready." She told Anna who grabbed her hand and the two of them walked toward the ice cream stand.

-"What flavour do you want baby?" She looked down at Anna who was eyeing the multiple flavours trying to make up her mind.

-"Huh, strawberry I think."

-"You think?"

-"Yes. I want strawberry mommy." The little girl finally decided.

-"Sure. One small strawberry please." She told the young man behind the counter.

-"Coming right up." He told her.

-She looked down at Anna to see her struggling with her towel.

-"Something wrong Anna?" She smiled.

-The little looked up and handed her towel to her mother.

-"I can't do it mommy." She complained pouting.

-"Do what?" She asked perplexed.

-"Make it stay like yours." The little girl pouted once again.

-Peyton smiled and bent down in front of her daughter. "Here, let me show you." She folded the towel and wrapped it around the little girl waist.

-"See, that way it's like a skirt." She told her, standing up once she was done.

-Anna looked down at herself and then twirled in front of her mother.

-"Beautiful." She smiled.

-The teller handed her her ice cream that she passed down to Anna before digging in her purse to hand him the money. They were about to leave when she heard it.

-"Peyton Sawyer. So nice to see you here."


	18. Chapter 18

-She froze. "Not here", she thought.

-She turned around quickly.

-"Brooke." She acknowledged coldly. Extending her hand for Anna to take, indicating clearly that they were leaving.

-Brooke stepped quickly in front of her.

-"What? You're not going to stay and chat with an old friend?" She smirked.

-"Oh! So that's what we are now. Sorry I got distracted by all the insults that were thrown the last time we saw each other. Now if you'll excuse me…" She motioned toward the exit.

-She walked quickly around Brooke with Anna's hand firmly in hers.

-"How'd you like the dress?"

-She stopped dead in her tracks and slowly turned to face Brooke.

-"What are you talking about?" She asked detached.

-"Your wedding dress. You know, the one **I** made." Brooke emphasized.

-To say that she was surprised was the understatement of the century. That was the last thing that she had expected Brooke to say.

-"I don't know what you're talking about?" She recovered from the shock and feigned ignorance, turning back around and leaving the shop.

-"Just because you walk away, doesn't mean that I'm just going to disappear you know."

-She turned her head slightly to see that Brooke was still following her.

-"I'm not doing this Brooke." She told her as she kept walking toward the beach.

-"Too bad, because I am." Brooke added accelerating her pace so that she could catch up with Anna and Peyton.

-"Not now." Peyton decided, her voice so cold that Anna, who had been watching the exchange since the beginning and was wondering what was going on, didn't dare ask and concentrated on her ice cream.

-They were already on the beach, a couple minutes from the guys and Brooke seemed to have realised why Peyton didn't want to do this now and was now walking in silence.

-The boys were building a sandcastle with James when Lucas saw them. He raised his head and there they were, his two girls and…

-"Oh crap!" He exclaimed standing up quickly.

-"What?" Skills asked wondering what had made his friend react like this.

-"Brooke!" It was the only thing that Lucas said before breaking into a run to meet his wife. He could see from the expression on her face that she clearly wasn't happy and he had an idea why.

-"What are YOU doing here?" He asked Brooke menacingly pulling Anna up into his arms.

-"Peyton here, and I, we need to talk." Brooke said coldly. If he thought that he was intimidating her, he was dead wrong.

-"No you don't." He glared at her as Nathan, Skills and James caught up to them.

-"It's fine Luke, I got it. Just take Anna please."

-"I'm not leaving you." He was dead serious about that. They were in this together.

-"Luke…"

-"I'm not some psycho, you don't need to play hero here Luke." Brooke glared at Lucas who had a protective arm wrap around Peyton.

-"I'm not going anywhere." He stayed his ground.

-"Brooke…" Nathan warned.

-"Anna princess. Would you mind going to play over there with Skills and your cousin while your mommy and I talk to the lady." Lucas asked Anna, setting her back down.

-She nodded slowly and took Skills' hand.

-"Huh Nate?" Skills asked, seeing that Nathan wasn't moving.

-"I'm staying too. James, you be nice with your cousin okay." He told his son, who rolled his eyes before following Skills and Anna back to their sandcastle.

-"Nate, you didn't need to…" Lucas was interrupted by Brooke who took the kids' leaving as her cue to talk.

-"Okay, now that everybody's here, let's talk about you wearing one of my dresses at your wedding without even bothering to tell me about it." She sneered at Peyton, her arms crossed over her chest.

-"Like I told you before, I have no idea what you're talking about." Peyton stood her ground.

-"Oh please. You can do better than that. I saw it Peyt."

-Peyton, Lucas and Nathan all froze at what she had just said.

-"You what?" Peyton recovered from the shock quickly her eyes bore into the other woman. The idea of Brooke being at her wedding truly frightening her.

-"I saw the dress, I saw the wedding even. We all did, didn't we Nathan?" She looked at the youngest Scott, who glared back at her. He couldn't believe that she had just said that.

-The couple turned to look at him and he stared at the ground defeated.

-"How?" Lucas asked his brother, his tone unwavering.

-"Huh there was this tape in the pile that mister Sawyer gave me. At first we thought that it was another movie, but turns out it wasn't." He explained guiltily. He had known that it was going to come back to bite him in the ass.

-"A tape of the wedding?" It was Peyton who had asked this time.

-"Among others. There was a lot of things on it. I'm sorry guys, we were just curious." He apologized.

-"You should have asked." Lucas started, him and Peyton sharing a look and getting to an agreement, they weren't going to make too much of this.

-"I'm sor…"

-"It's fine. I wish that they hadn't seen it, but what's done is done. Don't worry man." Lucas reassured his brother while Peyton kept glaring at Brooke.

-"Okay, you happy now? You've created your daily dose of drama. You can go now." She told Brooke.

-"Oh! We're not done here P. Sawyer, far from it. I want to know why you didn't tell me?" She asked again.

-"Seriously? You are seriously asking me that?" Peyton sneered. At which Brooke simply raised an interested eyebrow.

-"We aren't friends Brooke. We don't even talk. Why the hell would I talk to you about what I was going to wear at my wedding?"

-"Oh! So we aren't friends enough for you to inform me, but we're friend enough for you to get married in one of my dresses." Brooke argued.

-"That had nothing to do with it Brooke."

-"Then what was it about?" Brooke challenged.

-"A promise I made when I was twelve."

-She saw the question in Brooke's eyes and elaborated.

-"Don't you remember _best friend_? You made me promise that if I ever got married, I had to let you make my dress."

-Realization dawned on Brooke.

-"Okay so you're telling me that THIS has nothing to do with us being friend?" She confronted her once again.

-"No it doesn't. I wore the dress because I had promised my best friend growing up and it had been important to her, to the both of us, but you and her, they are two different persons. I didn't owe you anything, certainly not after what had happened."

-"That was all your fault. You're the one that went totally crazy on me one day without any reason."

-"All I did was tell you that I wasn't going to go to New York with you and YOU'RE the one that went ballistic. You had no right to say the things you did Brooke and I was not just going to lay down and take it, I had done nothing wrong." Peyton argued.

-"You pissed me off. Deciding to walk away like it had never mattered to you. I was only trying to help. If you would have come to New York with me, you would have been closer to Luke, but no, you wanted to stay in L.A. You were selfish Peyton." She fought back and then looked around her.

-"Did you know that Luke? Did you know that she could have studied in New York and just decided not to? Here you were, having a hard time because you missed her so much and she didn't even care about you enough to make an effort…"

-"**Don't you dare**! You know it had nothing to do with it." Peyton shouted at Brooke.

-"I knew about the program in New York Brooke. I also knew that it missed a lot of the things that she loved the most about the curriculum in L.A.. Don't stand here and pretend that your fight was about you sticking up for me because we all know that it wasn't what it was about." Lucas jumped in.

-He hated to see Peyton in pain and he knew that Brooke insinuating that she hadn't taken him into consideration when she chose to stay in L.A. hurt his wife. The truth was, though, that Peyton had told him about the program in New York and he had been the one to assure her that she needed to go where she needed to go and that he was going to stand by her regardless.

-"Well maybe you do, but I sure as hell don't."

-"I was sick of being your puppet Brooke. Ever since we began high school, all I've been to you was the little sidekick that would follow you around."

-"It's not…"

-"You know it's true Brooke. It was always about you, about what YOU wanted to do, who YOU wanted to date, not once did you think about what I would want. But nonetheless I stuck by you. All through high school, I stuck by you. I did everything that you wanted me to do. God, I even gave up Lucas for you, but it couldn't last forever." She took a deep breath.

-"It took me a while to realise, but I finally caught on. I was holding on to our friendship because a part of me thought that you were still that little girl who was so good to me when my mom died. But you know what Brooke? You hadn't been that girl in a long time and that's when I finally realised it." She brushed off her tears.

-"I was done being your sidekick. Done sacrificing what I wanted for someone who did not even acknowledge it. I made one decision, I made one decision for me and you proved me right. I decided to stay in L.A. and what did you do? You were horrible Brooke. The one time I really wanted you to tell me that you understood, that it was what I needed to do, you did the total opposite. You tried to scare me into changing my mind. You played into my insecurities and tried to use them to make me do exactly what you wanted."

-"Peyt…" Brooke tried to get a word in but Peyton was faster.

-"We stopped being friends when I realised to exactly what extent you were willing to go to keep me from bring happy on my own. So, if you think I was going to give even a thought into allowing you to play even a minuscule part in my wedding, you are dead wrong."

-Brooke stood there completely in shock, she had never seen Peyton so angry with her.

-"I'm done here. Leave me alone Brooke." She addressed the brunette coldly, angry tears still running down her cheeks, before turning around and walking away.

-Lucas shot one look at Brooke before quickly catching up to Peyton and wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they walked back to their daughter.

-"We weren't suppose to say anything." Nathan told Brooke accusingly as soon as his brother and Peyton were out of earshot.

-"I know, I just needed to know why." She cried.

-"Well now you know." He said before starting to walk away.

-"Oh and Brooke. She's right, it's always about you isn't it? You could have screwed my whole relationship with them and what, you don't care?" He blamed.

-"Nate, I…"

-"Don't bother." And with that he was gone, running back to the group and leaving a crying Brooke behind.


	19. Chapter 19

-Skills didn't dare say a word when the three of them got back. The expression on each of their faces was enough to tell him that they were all pissed off. Peyton was rummaging through her bag angrily, refusing to let the tears fall as they all watched her concerned.

-Ultimately, Lucas had had enough and forcefully pulled her to her feet, wrapping his arms tightly around her and that was it, she finally let go. She hugged him back tightly and cried into his neck.

-She didn't know why she was crying, it had all happened so long ago, but somehow she couldn't help herself. Lucas said nothing, he just hugged her as tightly as he could and occasionally kissed her hair in a comforting gesture.

-Eventually, Peyton remembered where they were and pulled back from him, brushing off the remnants of her tears embarrassingly.

-"Better?" Lucas asked her concerned, brushing a strand of her curly blonde hair behind her ear.

-"Yeah. Sorry for the breakdown."

-"Hey, it's alright." He reassured her, kissing her forehead.

-"You okay Peyt.?" Nathan asked concerned.

-"Yeah. Sorry about that." She apologized once more, embarrassed to have broken down in front of them.

-"Nothing to apologize for." Skills jumped in and Peyton nodded thankfully. She looked around and spotted her daughter.

-Anna was frantically digging in the sand with her small shovel, not even caring where the sand that she dug went. Peyton knew that something was wrong, she herself, had been doing almost exactly the same thing less then 5 minutes ago.

-She quickly went to her daughter with Lucas in tow.

-Peyton sat on the sand beside Anna.

-"Hey baby." Anna kept digging and Peyton and Lucas shared a concerned look.

-"Anna, look at me sweetie." She pressed on and after a few seconds Anna raised tear-stained eyes to meet hers.

-"Oh sweetie." Peyton cooed, pulling the little girl to her. Anna wrapped her arms around her neck tightly, straddling her waist and burying her face into her mother's neck.

-"I'm fine baby, mommy's okay, don't worry." She said into her hair looking sadly at Lucas who sat down beside her with a similar expression and wrapped them both into a hug.

-"I want to go mommy." She cried into Peyton's neck.

-"Go where?" Lucas asked.

-"Home. I don't want you and mommy to be sad anymore. I want to go home daddy." She reiterated, tears still running down her cheeks.

-Peyton and Lucas shared a sad look.

-"Baby, I'm fine." Peyton tried to convince her, feeling guilty for making her daughter sad.

-"No your not. I want to go home." Anna argued stubbornly, still crying.

-"But princess it's only three more days. And beside, if we go now it's going to be a long time before you see your uncle Nathan, Skills, and your cousin. You don't want that do you?" Lucas tried another tactic.

-It was weird because, he, himself, was seriously thinking about just giving up and going back to their life, but he didn't want Anna to associate Tree Hill with seeing her parents sad. It wouldn't have been fair to Nathan, James, and Skills.

-"Can't they come too?" Anna asked looking over at her uncles and her cousin who were all looking at her worryingly.

-"They live here princess. They could visit, but that probably won't be for a while. Don't you want to spend as much time as you can with them now?"

-"But daddy…"

-"Me and your daddy, we're going to be okay baby, you don't have to worry about us." Peyton jumped in, kissing her daughter's forehead reassuringly.

-"But what about that mean lady?" Anna asked apprehensive.

-Lucas' smile, that had grown at hearing his daughter refer to Brooke as 'a mean lady', quickly reverted itself when he saw the warning in Peyton's eyes.

-"We're going to be okay." He reassured.

-"But what if…"

-"Don't worry about us baby, just have fun okay." Peyton cut her off gently, her hands moving reassuringly up and down the little girl's back.

-"Okay." Anna finally conceded.

-"Good."

-"I don't want to swim anymore." Anna decided after a few more minutes in her mother's arms.

-Peyton and Lucas looked at each other and Lucas nodded.

-"Okay baby, we can leave if you want."

-"I'm sorry you guys. You can stay if you want." Lucas apologized to the guys, standing up.

-"No I want to go too. Can they come home daddy? I could show Anna how to play." James excitedly asked his father.

-"Play what?" Anna asked enthusiastically as her and Peyton stood up and met the guys.

-"Basketball, you silly." James answered like it had been the most evident answer in the world.

-Lucas and Peyton shared a look and Peyton broke out laughing.

-"Arg, no way, Basketball's yucky." Anna stated. At that, all the boys except Lucas, who had been there before, looked at her like she had two heads.

-"How can you not like basketball kiddo, it's awesome? I bet you haven't even played before. I'm telling you, you're going to like it." Skills tried to convince her.

-Peyton, who was still laughing, addressed her husband.

-"Luke, tell them what she did when you tried to teach her."

-Lucas glared at her which only made her laugh harder. Poor Lucas, he had wanted to teach Anna how to play so badly, but there was nothing to do, Anna's mind was set.

-"She looked at me play for a few minutes and then sat on the middle of the court, took out her crayons and starting drawing. All that while I was exhausting myself running around trying to show her how fun it could be. I'm telling you guys, it's hopeless." Lucas finished with a defeated expression on his face. He loved his daughter to death, but he had long learned that her and sports didn't match.

-"But why kiddo? It's so much fun." Skills wasn't giving up.

-Anna looked up at her mother, who was still laughing at the guys trying to convert her into a basketball player, and then crossed her little arms over her chest.

-"It's yucky. The ball, it's all dirty and it's hard and you run for nothing. I don't like running." She explained calmly but with a ' I know what I'm talking about and you won't make me change my mind' look.

-When she was done, Skills looked at Peyton accusingly.

-"Yucky. Yucky!" He shook his head disbelievingly. "It's all your genes you know."

-Peyton laughed once again.

-"I'm so sorry Skills." She apologized in mocked sincerity.

-"Come on kid, there has to be one sport you like?" Skills persisted.

-"Huh huh." Anna shook her head while Peyton could barely control her laughter once more.

-"No sports. It's all you, you know." Skills pointed at Peyton reproachfully.

-"Hey! I did sports. I did cheerleading." She argued.

-"Cheerleading! Yeah sure." Skills rolled his eyes at her.

-"Mommy what's cheerleading?" Anna turned to her mother.

-"You know when you and I go watch your daddy play with your uncles and that cheer you for him?"

-The little girl nodded.

-"Add dancing and a little gymnastic and you have cheerleading."

-The little girl's eyes lit up.

-"I want to do that mommy, please." She begged.

-"We'll see baby. When you're a little older." She turned to see Skills with a reproachful expression on his face once again. "A problem Skills?" She asked in fake concern.

-"Cheerleading? You're ruining this kid Sawyer."

-"Hey!" Both Peyton and Anna protested at the same time.

-"What? The kid has all these amazing Scott basketball genes and she's using them for what? Cheerleading? You have got to be kidding me." He still couldn't believe it and his outburst sent the other adults in another laughing fit.

-"She's only four Skills, maybe she'll change her mind about sports later." Peyton tried to comfort him.

-"Huh huh. I'm never going to play basketball, it's boring." Anna stated proudly.

-"How can you not like basketball?" James stared at his cousin discouraged. All Anna did was glare at him as the adults laughed.

-"You know Luke, maybe you'll get lucky with the next one."

-Peyton's head shot up and she quickly covered Anna's ears with her hands while glaring at Nathan and then at Lucas, who smiled guiltily.

-"What?" Nathan asked not knowing why she was glaring at them.

-"We just had that talk with Anna a few months back, and Peyton doesn't want to have to have a repeat." Lucas explained smiling at his wife who still had her hands on Anna while the little girl was trying desperately to break free.

-"What not ready for another one Peyt.?" Nathan joked.

-"If she brings it up again, you're so going to be the one explaining it to her." She glared at Lucas.

-When Anna had started to ask them if she could get a brother or a sister, she had been at it for weeks. It had almost drove the both of them crazy.

-"They don't just pop out NATHAN." She glared at the younger Scott who smirked at her.

-Truth was, her and Lucas did want to have another child, but they had both agreed to wait until their life was more settled. They wanted the second pregnancy to be planned.

-"Drop it." She warned when she saw that Nathan was about to say something else.

-He grinned but didn't add anything and Peyton released her hold on her daughter, who looked questionably up at her.

-"Why was that mommy?"

-"You're uncle Nathan just said something silly." Peyton explained glaring at her husband and his brother who both grinned back at her.

-"So, not anytime soon?" Nathan laughed.


	20. Chapter 20

-"Would you please stop that." Peyton didn't even look up from her sketchbook as she spoke to her husband as the two of them were sitting on their bed later that night.

-"Stop what?" He asked innocently and she turned to look at him, putting down her pad.

-"You and Anna have been watching me like that ever since we came back from the beach."

-"Like what?" He smiled down at her.

-"Luke, I'm fine. You and Anna don't need to worry about me."

-"Peyt. It's okay for you to be upset." He threaded his fingers through her curls, kissing her nose sweetly and she flashed him a smile.

-"But I'm not." He was about to argue but she cut him off. "You and Anna are sweet, I love you guys to death, but you worry too damn much. I'm fine, I finally know."

-"Know what?"

-"That I did the right thing. You know, ever since I broke things off with Brooke, I've been wondering if I did the right thing, if I hadn't been too rash. A part of me always wondered if I hadn't ended a friendship over a stupid misunderstanding, Now I know I made the right choice. I don't have to wonder anymore, I'm free from all that now."

-"You sure?" Her head was resting on his chest now, one of his arm wrapped tightly around her waist while his other hand was playing with her hair.

-"Yeah, don't worry."

-"I can't help it, I love you."

-"I know and I love you too." She kissed his naked chest, right above his heart and he smiled.

-"Anna's worried too you know and she's going to be a lot harder to convince. You can't use sexual favours with her." He smirked and she rolled her eyes.

-"I didn't have to with you. Beside, you're the one who owes me remember?" She smiled up at him suggestively.

-"Hey, it's not my fault. She couldn't find the right shirt, what was I suppose to do?"

-"My point exactly." She rolled her eyes again. Things never change. Lucas would always have trouble getting their daughter ready on time.

-He laughed. "Fine, but you'll pay."

-"I'm looking forward to it." She smiled seductively at him and he coughed lightly. He always got carried away when she looked at him like that.

-"So, before we get carried away here, where were we? Oh right, Anna's worried too."

-"I know. Like father, like daughter. You know, when she scrutinize me like that, she looks so much like you. I guess this protectiveness thing is genetic. We'll talk to her, she'll understand."

-"Yeah. She just loves you so much, we both do."

-She smiled and brought herself even closer to him, she was almost completely on top of him now.

-"I know." She paused, simply enjoying the feeling of being in his arms. "Have you thought about it?" She asked, her fingers drawing patterns on his chest.

-"Thought about what?" He inhaled the smell of her, enjoying the tingling sensation it caused through his body.

-"Making sure that we weren't wrong about the others. I mean, we were wrong about Nate, it wasn't as bad as we thought. Maybe we should hear their reasons, you know just to know once and for all and move on."

-"I already moved on. I moved on the moment I packed my things and left. I don't want to know more Peyt. I know all that I need to know."

-"Luke…" she looked up to make eye-contact with him.

-"Peyt., I thought that we agreed on this."

-"We did. We do. I just… It's your family and I'm sure they miss you. It's been a long time Luke."

-"I know, but things haven't changed. That was made clear enough when they yelled at us after the reception."

-"I know, I just… Luke…"

-"What's going on Peyt.? Where is this coming from?" He looked down at her concerned.

-"I don't know okay. It's just, being here I guess. It brings back old memories you know. Your mom and Haley, they were really important to you Luke."

-"Yeah they were, but things change. You and Anna are all I need now. All I want."

-"But Luke…" She tried to argue once again but Lucas interrupted her.

-"I don't regret anything, what happened happened, but I'm happy."

-"I know."

-"Good, so can we drop this now?"

-"Alright."

-The two stayed in comfortable silence for a few seconds before Peyton spoke again.

-"What about Sophie, Luke?"

* * *

-After their day with Lucas and his family, Nathan had taken James back to the Rivercourt with Skills and they had played well into the evening. Nathan found it hilarious that Skills was as offended by the idea that Anna could not like basketball as James was and he had made fun of his friend about that fact thoroughly during the rest of the afternoon. 

-James and him exited the car and walked inside their apartment later that evening.

-"Hi mom!" James said excitedly and rolled his eyes when Haley went to hug him.

-"I'm not a baby you know." He complained to his mother and Nathan laughed.

-"I know, so how was your day?" Haley asked the boy.

-"Really great. Me and Anna we battled in the water and me and Skills we beat Dad and Anna."

-"No you didn't." Nathan argued walking in and giving Haley a kiss. She glared at him but didn't say anything so he let it go.

-"Fine, Dad and Anna won once or twice." He admitted with a small pout.

-"So you had fun?" Haley smiled.

-James nodded excitedly. "Dad he said that Anna can be like my little sister and that I can be her big brother and protect her. Anna she said that she's not little, but she is so I'm going to protect her anyway, right dad?" He looked up at his father.

-"Sure." He looked at Haley. "At first I thought that they were going to kill each other, but turns out, they like to argue. Who would have thought?" He smiled. After a while, it had became kind of fun to watch the two kids arguing with one another.

-"And mom guess what?" The little boy piped in from the floor.

-"What baby?"

-"Anna she doesn't even like basketball. Can you believe that? She said it's icky. Girls…" He sighed dramatically and both Haley and Nathan laughed as the boy ran to his room.

-"So Anna doesn't like basketball? How's Lucas with that?" Haley asked Nathan when James was out of sight.

-"He was fine with it. Though he didn't seem that overjoyed that Peyton was making fun of him about it. She made him tell us how when he tried to teach her, she got bored and sat in the middle of the court drawing. It was hilarious." He laughed.

-Haley laughed too, it was good to imagine her friends without thinking about the fight for a few seconds.

-"Poor Luke, he must have been so disappointed. Maybe he'll get lucky with the next one."

-Nathan burst out laughing.

-"WHAT?" Haley asked not knowing what he was laughing at.

-"It's just, I said the same thing and Peyton almost decapitated me. You should have seen the speed at which she covered Anna's hears, I thought that I was going to pee my pants."

-"She doesn't want any other kids?" Haley inquired curious. They seemed so happy, it was weird for her to think that they wouldn't want another one.

-"Yeah they do, but not now. They want to wait awhile but apparently Anna's been begging them for one."

-"Oh!"

-"Yeah. So you had a nice day?" He asked her, sitting himself down on the couch.

-"Yup, it was great, we went for a walk after shopping. It was fun, that is until Brooke came back from the ice cream shop, without ice cream and crying. Something about you not being nice to her." She looked up at him accusingly and he sprang to his feet.

-"Me? What?????" He looked at her with a pissed off expression. "I don't know what she told you but Brooke started it. She went after Peyton. In front of Anna, I might add. She could have screwed my whole relationship with them. And I didn't do anything." He spat angrily storming off.

-Haley looked after him in shock for a few seconds before going after him.

* * *

-"What?" He asked confused by the change in topic. 

-"Your sister Luke. What about your sister? Don't you want to be in her life again?" Peyton raised her head to look him in the eyes once again.

-"Of course I would, you know that, but I accepted a long time ago that it's just not going to happen." He admitted sadly.

-"Why not Luke? She's your little sister, I'm sure that she would love to meet you."

-"Because of my mother Peyt. She doesn't want me in their life, she made that pretty clear." He looked away from her briefly and she sighed.

-"You really think she'd deliberatedly keep you away from your sister just out of spite?"

-"I don't know. It's not like I know her anymore. I guess we'll never know." He held onto her tighter, taking comfort in her embrace.

-"Why not? Why don't you just ask her?"

-"What's that about Peyt? Why are you pushing this all of a sudden?"

-"I'm not pushing. I'm not asking you to make up with your mom, I know how much she hurt you, us, but your sister had nothing to do with all that Luke."

-"Yeah, but why now?" He was still confused about why this was so important to her all of a sudden.

-"I don't know. Just seeing Anna with James, and James with you I guess. It made me realize that your little sister got caught in the middle of this and that because of that, she might never know her big brother. It's kind of sad."

-"I know. I just don't know what I'm suppose to do." He kissed her head while she thought about it.

-"Why don't you just ask your mom? You know, see if she would mind letting you spend time with Sophie."

-He considered it for a few seconds.

-"What if she says no? Or if she wants to talk?"

-"Well if she says no, it's going to be on her, at least you're going to have given a shot. And well, about talking, just make it clear that you're not there for that."

-"Would you come?"


	21. Chapter 21

-"You want me to go to your mom's with you?" She looked back at him incredulous.

-"Would you?"

-"Of course. If you want me with you, I'll go, but you know your mom hates me right? Somehow, I don't think she'll be very happy to see me." She tried to joke but it came out hollow, Karen's instant hatred of her had been very hard to accept. The wound was still fresh.

-"I think that if I'm to do this, I need you there. Please." It's not like she was going to refuse in the first place, but the way he was looking at her now, she just couldn't even imagine turning him down. He almost looked scared.

-"Okay. So tomorrow?" She asked apprehensive. She wanted to be there for him and she would be, but at the same time she couldn't say she was happy to see Karen. She could never love or respect the older woman like she used to, no matter how things went between her and Lucas in the future.

-"Yeah, I guess." He agreed less than enthusiastically. Peyton was right, he do felt like he had kind of abandoned his sister when he fought with his mother, but going over there, facing Karen, he couldn't say he was thrilled about that possibility.

-He brought her face to his and pecked her lips sweetly.

-" I love you."

-"I know, and I love you too." She smiled down at him and rested her head back down on his chest, relaxing completely.

* * *

-The day after, Nathan was still giving Haley the cold shoulder. He couldn't believe that Haley had been so fast to believe Brooke and blame him. Haley had tried to apologize and talk to him but he had been too angry to talk and his mood hadn't really changed through the night.

-"Nathan…" Haley tried once more, walking into the kitchen to find Nathan and their son eating breakfast.

-"Not now Hales."

-"Good morning mommy." James chimed in, the tension between his parents going totally unnoticed by the little boy.

-"Good morning baby." She kissed his forehead.

-She was about to talk again when the phone rang. James bounded to his feet and ran to the phone.

-"Hello!"

-"Hi uncle Lucas!" Both adult's head snapped to the boy.

-"I'm good." There was a pause then James spoke again. "Okay bye uncle Lucas!" He turned and handed the phone to his father.

-"Luke?" Nathan spoke into the phone.

-"Hi Nate! How are you?" His brother spoke.

-"Good. What's up man?" He hadn't expected to hear from Lucas so soon.

-"Huh Peyton and I were wondering if you could take Anna for a few hours today."

-"Sure, but Luke, are you sure? I mean Haley's here and…" He didn't really want to address the subject with Haley there listening in.

-"Yeah, well Larry's out for the day and Skills' working and we don't think it's a great idea to take her with us so…"

-"I'm your last choice." He finished with a sad smile.

-"Sorry!" His voice really sounded like he meant it.

-"Hey no need, I get it. Anna barely knows me, you're not sure you can trust me completely yet, it's alright. I'll take care of her for as long as you need, no need to worry." He smiled, he was thrilled to spend more time with the little girl.

-"You sure?" Lucas asked uncertain.

-"Yeah, bring her whenever you want."

-"Okay thanks but Nate, make sure that…" Lucas hesitated, somehow this didn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

-"She'll be fine Luke."

-"Yeah. So, we'll drop her off in about an hour okay?"

-"Yeah. Sure. See you soon." And with a last good bye Nathan hung up the phone.

-"What's going on?" Haley asked curious.

-"Huh! Anna's going to come over for a few hours." He looked at James who beamed at the announce.

-"Really?" The little boy looked up at him hopefully.

-"Yup, uncle Lucas and aunt Peyton are bringing her over in an hour." He smiled at the little boy.

-James jumped from his chair and ran to the door.

-"Hey buddy. What are you going?" Nathan laughed at his son enthusiasm.

-"I'm getting dressed, Anna's going to be here soon." And with that he ran into his room.

-"So, they really trust us to take care of her?" Haley asked incredulous.

-"Not us, me, and by the way I was practically their last choice and I had to basically promise that you were not going to mess with Anna so…"

-"What? What do they think that I'm going to do? I'm not some psycho." Haley argued, offended.

-"I don't know maybe they're worried because last time you saw them you were a bitch."

-She sent him a death glare and he retracted a little.

-"Well the point is, you weren't exactly civil and if Anna gets upset with you because you said something, they're probably never going to trust me again so…"

-"I would never upset a child, I thought you knew that."

-"Yeah and I thought you would trust me before Brooke, but here we are."

-"Nate…"

-"Look, I don't have time for this now, I have to get ready." And with that he walked out, Haley following after him quickly.

* * *

-"Peyt! Everything's going to be fine." Lucas reassured his wife as they exited the car in front of Nathan and Haley's apartment building.

-"Yeah, I just…"

-"Mommy, where are my things?" Anna interrupted her mom as Peyton opened the door for her.

-"In the trunk baby. Your daddy's getting it now." The two of them looked at Lucas who was now making his way toward them with Anna's bag.

-"Ready princess?"

-"Yup, let's go see uncle Nathan." She smiled happily dragging her parents into the building.

-The three of them walked into the building and up the stairs and then stopped in front of the door. Nathan had written down the address for them the day before and Lucas looked one last time at Peyton before raising his hand and knocking on the door.

-Within seconds, they were faced with Nathan and a very excited James.

-"Hi." He beamed.

-"Hi Jamie. Hey Nate!" Lucas spoke first, Peyton hugging both boys afterward.

-"Come on in!" Nathan led them inside the apartment. Peyton and Lucas hesitated briefly but when Anna jumped into Nathan's arms and he took her inside, they quickly followed.

-"In and out. In and out." Lucas encouraged, sensing Peyton tensed as the two of them made their way into the apartment.

-"Hi Lucas, Peyton." Haley stood up as the two of them entered the kitchen, Nathan and the kids were already there.

-Lucas barely acknowledged her, nodding his head in her direction while Peyton completely ignored her, bending down to talk to Anna.

-"You be nice with your uncle Nathan and your cousin alright."

-"I'm always nice mommy." Anna admonished and Peyton smiled.

-"I know baby but you never got babysat by other people than aunt Liz or aunt Sara before, so I'm just making sure. If anything happens you know the numbers of both mine and daddy's cell phone and Nathan has got them too. Just call alright."

-"Okay mommy, but I'm not a baby." Anna rolled her eyes before wrapping her arms around her mother's neck, hugging her. Peyton hugged her back immediately.

-Lucas put a hand on Peyton's shoulder some time later and she looked up at him before releasing Anna as Lucas bent down to talk to her too.

-"Don't argue too much with Jamie okay." He smirked at his daughter who rolled her eyes.

-"I only argue when I'm right daddy." She smiled charmingly up at him and Lucas laughed.

-"No your not."

-The replied came from the little boy who apparently disagreed with the statement. Lucas jumped in before Anna could start another arguing marathon.

-"You sure you'll be alright with these two Nate?"

-"Don't worry, we'll be fine. Right kids?" He shot them a smirk.

-Both kids nodded happily and Lucas nodded too, smiling.

-"Alright. Be nice princess." He hugged her close to his body and Anna returned the hug happily.

-The couple then stood up and turned to Nathan.

-"Call if there is any problem, alright."

-"Everything will be fine. Don't worry." Nathan reassured the couple.

-"Thanks, you know for this."

-"Don't mention it." Nathan patted Anna's head and she narrowed her eyes at him.

-"We'll see you later baby." Peyton kissed her daughter's forehead and waved to Nathan and with that the two of them left the apartment on their way to their second challenge of the day.


	22. Chapter 22

-The drive to Karen's house was very silent, neither of them was in the mood for small talk, all they could think about was the fact that in a matter of minutes they were going to be face-to-faced with Karen again and that was not something that neither of that was looking for.

-Lucas stopped the car in front of the house but made no move to get out, he seemed deep in thought so Peyton stayed silent, giving him time to focus his mind on what he was going to do.

-"I don't know if I can do this Peyt." After a good ten minutes of silence, Lucas finally spoke.

-"You don't have to. If you feel that it's too soon we can do this another time Luke."

-"We leave in two days Peyt. If I don't do this today who knows when we'll be back here again. You were right, Sophie is my sister, she should have her brother in her life. I just…"

-"You can do this Luke, we both can. We've done nothing wrong, we shouldn't be feeling like we did."

-"I know I just… I'm scared that I'm going to loose my cool. What if I get pissed off and ruin this with Sophie?"

-"You won't. Luke all you have to do is make it clear that you're not here for that, that all you want is to spend some time with Sophie. If you feel like it's too much we'll leave and figure out another way."

-"How can you be so calm?" He looked back at her incredulous.

-"Actually, I have no idea. Maybe it's that I finally realised that it doesn't matter. Your mom, Brooke, even Haley, it doesn't matter what they do or say to us anymore, I know that we made the right choice and we're happy. I've got all I ever wanted from life, I don't care what anybody thinks anymore."

-"You know what, you're a genius and you're right. Who cares what she thinks? I'm trying to do the right thing by Sophie, either that's good enough for her or it's not. I love you." He smiled down at her for the for the first time since they had gotten into the car at Nathan and Haley's and she smiled back.

-"I know that I'm a genius and I love you too." She smirked and Lucas smiled.

-"Okay, let's go then. Let's get this over with." Lucas decided after giving Peyton a quick peck and the two of them exited the car.

-Lucas took a deep breath and Peyton gave his hand a little squeeze of encouragement as the two of them stood in front of the door and Lucas slowly knocked.

* * *

-"Okay so what do you want to do now kiddo?" Nathan looked at the little blonde girl who had been unusually quiet since her parents had left.

-"I want to draw." She said quietly and Nathan nodded, shooting a worried look at Haley who looked back at him worryingly. Neither of them knew why she was so calm all of a sudden.

-Anna grabbed her bag and took out her pad and crayons and set them on the table without a word.

-"Can I draw too?" James looked up at his parents.

-"Huh sure, let me get you some paper." Haley agreed, walking out to fetch her son some paper.

-"Do you want to share my crayons?" Anna proposed to her cousin, moving her case to the side so that it was in between them. James nodded and started going through the crayons.

-"Wow, you got so many colours. How come you have so many?" James asked her incredulous, five different shade of blue crayons in his hand.

-"My mommy she gives them to me. She always gets new ones and then she gives me the old ones, but they still work, she never uses them long." She explains changing colours.

-"Cool. I always get the same colours." He complained.

-"What it is that your mommy does sweetie?" Haley asked and Nathan shot her a warning look.

-Anna looked up at her and glared and Haley recoiled a little but still kept an encouraging smile on her face, trying to get the girl to open up to her.

-"She draws images that go on publicity adds." She volunteered some time later, her eyes not softening even a little as she looked back at Haley.

-"Wow really. Aunt Peyton does that?" James was impressed, but Anna just nodded, going back to her drawing.

* * *

-The door opened and if either of them hadn't been so nervous, they might have enjoyed the expression of pure surprise that took over Karen's face at the sight of them.

-"Lucas!" She uttered in shock.

-Lucas took a deep breath before speaking,

-"I was wondering if I could spend some time with Sophie."

-"You want to see Sophie?" She asked incredulous.

-Lucas once again made a great effort to keep his calm.

-"She's my sister and I would like to get to know her." He spoke calmly.

-"You're a little late for that don't you think?" She didn't know why she was acting that way again. She'd been telling herself that she needed to make things up to Lucas but here she was letting her temper get the better of her again.

-Peyton sensed Lucas tensed and decided that she was better to jump in before things got even worst.

-"Look Karen either you agree or you don't, but please let's not get into another fight right now."

-Karen's eyes bore into her and for a few seconds, Peyton thought that Karen was going to let it go, but just as it had come, the sympathy she saw in the older woman's eyes was gone again.

-"Stay out of this Peyton. Why are you even here anyway?"

-Peyton had to bite down her bottom lip really hard not to snap back but it didn't matter because Lucas had spoken before she could say anything.

-"I'm going to say this only once, you have no business speaking to her like that, not now, not ever. So here's the thing I felt bad for having missed out on so much of Sophie's life because of what happened between us and I wanted to try to fix it. Now you can either accept or refuse but either way you're going to respect my wife."

-"Look Lucas, I can't just let her go with you, she doesn't know you and beside and I don't really know how responsible you are."

-"What is that suppose to mean?" He asked offended, his eyes narrowing at her.

-"Lucas I think that we should go." Peyton jumped in. She could see from Lucas' facial expression that if she didn't say anything, things were going to get ugly pretty soon.

-"All I'm saying is that maybe if I could supervise the two of you than eventually I would feel comfortable leaving the two of you alone."

-"You have some nerves. I do have a daughter you know. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of a kid but you wouldn't know that now would you? You never…"

-"Lucas, let's just go." Peyton tugged on his hand and he looked at her.

-There was so much anger and so much pain in his eyes right now that she wanted just for once to just let Karen have it but she knew that to pick a fight with Karen would be childish and would not help Lucas' anger diminish at all. She just needed to get him out of there.

-Lucas kept his angry eyes trained on Karen and Peyton tugged harder on his hand.

-"Lucas!"

-He looked back at her and this time he let her lead him away but not before telling one last thing to his mother.

-"I'm a good father mom and I would have loved to spend some time with Sophie but I'm not going to put up with this. I don't know what the hell happened to you but I actually feel bad for Sophie now because the woman who raised me is obviously not the one who's raising her. The mother I loved is obviously not here anymore. You're…"

-"Lucas. Lucas look at me. You don't want to do this. Let's just go." Peyton pleaded with him. She knew that Lucas was angry but she knew that if he finished that sentence nothing good would come out of it. He looked at her and sensed the pleading in her eyes and then shot one last look at his mother before following Peyton back to the car and speeding away.


	23. Chapter 23

-Lucas had been silent, not even looking at her ever since they had gotten into the car at Karen's house therefore, Peyton was more than surprised when he spoke but not so much by what he said.

-"Peyt, I think that…" He started nervously.

-"You need to be alone for a while. Yeah, I know." She finished his sentence, her eyes focused on the road.

-"Are you mad?"

-"No of course not. I know you, I know you'll talk to me when your ready. Do you want me to drop you of at my dad's? I could go pick up Anna and give you a few hours to yourself."

-"I'd rather you drop me off at the Rivercourt if you don't mind?"

-"Of course." She reached out and grabbed one of his hand in hers, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

-"Peyt.' Lucas spoke after a while. "Thanks, for this."

-"For what? I didn't do nothing special."

-"I don't know what I'd do without you. You stopped me from doing something stupid back there."

-"I'm sorry your mom didn't reacted the way you hoped. I'm sorry I pushed you to it."

-"Hey it's not your fault. You were right, I needed to give it a try. It's just suck that she was like that, I would have really liked to spend some time with Sophie."

-"Sorry Luke. Hey, there we are. Just call me when you're ready alright."

-"Peyt. I love you, you know that right?"

-"Of course. Take all the time you need and than give me a call alright."

-"Sure, tell Anna I love her."

-"Will do. Have fun babe." She smiled at her husband grabbing the basket ball that resided in the back seat. It was weird, they hadn't even been here a week and still Lucas had found a ball and stocked it in the car in case he needed it. The guy sure loved this sport.

-"You too. I'll see you." He grinned and she laughed before driving away, leaving Lucas to work out his anger and pain on his own a little.

-Lucas had learned to open up to her in the time that they had been together. He no longer tried to work through everything on his own, he let her in, allowed her to understand what he was feeling, but they knew each other so well, most times she knows exactly what he does feel before he even says it to her.

-He was a different man now than the guy he had been in high school, but still he liked working through his emotions in his own way. There was this basket ball court close to their apartment in L.A. and Lucas went there regularly when he was working through something. When he was ready he'd come to her and they would talk about it. That's how they did things.

-The same thing went for her. When she was the one upset, Lucas would allow her the space and time she needed and waited for her to come to him and then he would try to make her feel better, something he was wonderful at.

-At Nathan's place, she exited the car and checked her watch, Anna had been there for over an hour and she just hoped that things had gone alright.

-She knocked on the door and was surprised when Haley was the one to answer it, somehow she had completely forgotten that Haley lived there too. The two of them, both shocked at seeing each other, were silent for a few seconds, until Peyton snapped out of it.

-"I'm here to pick up my daughter." She spoke calmly, like Haley wasn't somebody who had tried to take Lucas away from her and her daughter.

-"I thought you were suppose to be out for a few hours."

-Peyton just looked at her, narrowing her eyes.

-"My daughter?" She asked again, this time more coldly.

-"In the kitchen." Haley replied a little uncomfortable at the disdain in Peyton's voice. She had realised that she had been wrong doing what she did to Peyton and Lucas, but as she was realising now fixing that mistake was going to be a lot harder than she had hoped.

-"Thanks." Peyton said coldly, moving passed Haley and into the apartment.

-She found her daughter in the kitchen, her, James and Nathan were drawing at the kitchen table. Her daughter was so focused on her work she didn't see her mother walk in and didn't know that she was there until Peyton kissed the top of her head.

-"Mommy!" Anna yelped happily, dropping her crayon and jumping into her mother's arms. Peyton caught her happily, hugging her close.

-"Hey baby! Did you have fun?" She caressed her daughter's hair while the little girl nodded, her head buried in her mother's neck.

-"Hi Jamie, what's up little guy?" With Anna still in her arms she sat down on the seat previously occupied by her daughter.

-"I'm not really good, Anna's better." He said pouting, showing his aunt his drawing.

-The little boy was in the process of drawing a plane, and she thought he was rather hard on himself, it was pretty good.

-"I think it looks good buddy." She argued.

-"Yeah, but not as good as Anna's." James still pouted.

-"The girl's got drawing in her blood buddy, you can't compete against that." Nathan reassured his son while shooting a concern look to Anna who was still holding onto her mother tightly. He wondered if he had done something wrong.

-"Well, I still think you're very good." Peyton smiled at the boy.

-"Aunt Peyton?" He looked up shyly.

-"Yes?"

-"Anna she said that you give her good crayons when you don't use them anymore and…"

-"I'll send you some when I get back." Peyton smiled.

-"Really?" James beamed and Peyton laughed.

-"Sure. Anything for my favourite nephew"

-"Huh Peyt, is everything okay?" Nathan asked, cutting into the converstation between Peyton and his son and nodding toward the little girl in her mother's arms.

-"You alright baby?" she asked her daughter.

-The little girl nodded. "I missed you mommy."

-"I missed you too baby."

-"Is she not used to getting babysit?" Haley asked and Peyton glared at her. That was so not the way she had meant it, but the words had came out wrong. The last thing Haley had wanted was for Peyton to take it personally, but apparently she had.

-"I'm sorry, I…"

She tried to apologize but Peyton cut in.

-"Never by strangers no." She glared at Haley but gave a small smile to Nathan who looked uncomfortable.

-"She goes to day-care, sure, but when Lucas and I go out she usually stays with one of her godmothers." She volunteered, more to reassure Nathan than for Haley's benefit. Nathan really looked worried and she didn't him to feel like he had done something wrong.

-"Oh!"

-"Mommy?" Anna spoke again, pulling a little to look at her mother.

-"Yeah baby."

-"Where's daddy?" The little girl asked, looking around for any signs of her father and finding none.

-"Daddy's at the park, playing basketball. He'll be there a little while, but he wanted me to tell you that he loves you very much." She brushed her daughter's hair away from her face.

-"Is daddy sad, he always plays basketball when he's sad."

-"Yeah baby, your daddy's a little sad, but he'll play and then everything is going to be fine. Don't worry."

-"Was Sophie not nice with him?" She asked concerned. At first, when they had told her where they were going and who they were going to see, Anna had been a little jealous. She didn't like the idea of another little girl in her daddy's life, but after they had explained to her that Lucas could never love another little girl like he loved her, she had asked if she could go too, which they had answered in the negative. Apparently a good thing seeing how it had went.

-"Daddy and I didn't get to see Sophie, that's why daddy's upset a little, but he'll be fine, you know daddy." She smiled, kissing her daughter's nose affectionately and making the little girl giggle.

-"You went to Karen's?" Nathan asked surprised. Lucas hadn't told him anything about where him and Peyton were going and now he was totally shocked to find the place they did visit.

-Peyton looked up at him with a shocked expression. She had been so focused on her daughter she had completely forgot that they had an audience.

-Slowly she nodded. "Yeah, Lucas wanted to spend some time with Sophie."

-"How did it go?" He asked.

-"I'd rather not talk about it."

-She tried to be as nice as she could but somehow she still saw the ghost of disappointment and pain in Nathan's face and she felt guilty but she couldn't talk to him about that and not only because Haley was in the room. There was also the time that had passed, the fight, etc., they were not close enough anymore for her to feel comfortable talking about this kind of stuff with him. All she could do was hope that sometime in the future they would be.

-"Oh! I understand." He answered with a sad smile.

-"Nate, it's not…"

-"I get it, things are not the same as they used to be. It'll take time."

-"Sorry."

-"Don't. If someone needs to apologize it's me. I'm sorry I lost your trust Peyt. I'll do everything I get to earn it back I promise."

-"Thanks Nate, for understanding. It means a lot."

-"Mommy, what are we going to do while daddy plays?" Anna asked, her little arms playing with Peyton's shirt buttons.

-"You can stay here and play with me?" James jumped in.

-"I don't know, I mean…" The reason why she was hesitating was pretty clear and it was the exact reason why Haley jumped in.

-"Stay, I'll be nice, I swear."

-"Please aunt Peyton."

-"Please mommy." Anna jumped in and now Peyton knew that she had no way out of it, she couldn't say no to those two little kids looking at her so sweetly.

-"Okay fine, but only until daddy calls." She agreed, praying to God for this to go better than their time at Karen had."


	24. Chapter 24

Okay, things were going better than she had expected, but if you asked her she'd say it was mainly because she had focused her attention mainly on Anna pretending that Haley and her piercing stares did not exists and so far that was working perfectly. That is until Haley apparently got tired of Peyton ignoring her and grabbed her shoulder causing Peyton to jump a little at the intrusion.

-"What?" She turned, glaring at Haley.

-"Look Peyton, I was just wondering if maybe we could talk?"

-"In fact, I'd rather we don't."

-"Peyton…"

-"Haley we have nothing to say to each other."

-"I think that we do. James, baby, why don't you show Anna your room while aunt Peyton and I talk."

-James nodded and got up but Anna didn't move, looking warily between her mother and Haley.

-"It's alright Anna, we're just going to talk, I won't hurt her promise." Haley tried, her voice light but Anna's expression didn't waver.

-"You're not my mommy, I don't have to listen to you and you can't hurt my mommy because before you even try my daddy, he's going to hurt you even badder."

-"Badder's not a word baby, but go, I'll be fine." Peyton smiled. This protectiness thing obviously was hereditary.

-Anna didn't move until Peyton gave her a reassuring smile and when she did, it wasn't before unceremoniously glaring at Haley.

-"Quite the temper."

-Peyton glared murderously at her.

-"Okay, know where she gets that from. Sorry. Look I wanted to explain…"

-"What? Why you tried to have Lucas believe that I was a conniving whore who went and got pregnant by someone else and tried to pawned the kid on poor innocent Lucas? Yeah, no need."

-"Peyton, I never meant that…"

-"You know what the worst part was Haley? I thought that you were my friend and it really sucked to find out otherwise at the time where I would have needed my friends the most."

-"I am your friend."

-"I'd beg to differ."

-"Look Peyton, I never meant for you to get hurt because of all of this."

-"Sure you didn't."

-"I panicked alright. I mean Lucas has always been my best friend. We were friends way before you realised that he even existed. I'm not saying that as a dig or anything it's just a fact. I've known Lucas for almost all my life, he's been with me through everything and then one day he just announces out of nowhere that you're pregnant and that he's leaving." She paused, took a deep breath and then continued.

-"I was terrified that I was going to loose my best friend and I reacted badly, I admit that."

-"So what? You're no longer claiming that Lucas' not Anna's father."

-"It'd be difficult to, she has his eyes."

-"Gee I hadn't noticed."

-"Look Peyton, you don't have to be that aggressive, I'm trying to apologize."

-"Here's the thing Haley. It's not because you finally decide to apologize that I've got to want to hear it. Not everything's about you, you know."

-"You don't have to forgive me, but the least you can do is hear me out."

-"I don't owe you anything and beside, what else could you say. You were scared of loosing Lucas so you decided that you'd do or say anything to keep him here. Who cares about me, or my daughter for that matter, right? As long as you got what you wanted."

-"It's not like that."

-"Really, because to me it looks like it's exactly what it was like."

-"My life wasn't going so great at the time Peyton, and I relied on Luke a lot. I admit it okay, I shouldn't have tried to stop him from doing the right thing but I was terrified and I figured that you could handle things on your own."

-"Gee thanks. So you were doing me a favour? That was so nice of you."

-"It was a mistake okay, I recognize that. Why can't we just move on, Peyton? You and Lucas have the perfect life anyway. You had it way easier than Nathan and I did, I don't see why you're still so mad, things worked out great for you."

-"You're kidding right?" Shw would have laughed hadn't it been so ridiculous.

-"I was mad that you took Lucas away? Why couldn't you just move back here to have the baby? Why did you have to take him away when we all needed him the most?"

-"You know that what you says makes no sense right?"

-"I'm trying to figure out why you had to do this."

-"First of all, the way I run my life is none of your business. I didn't have to ask your permission and neither did Lucas."

-"Second of all, I'm only saying this because I want out of this conversation and not because I owe you anything, but I never asked Lucas to give up everything to come to L.A with me, it was his decision. Still,I'm going to be forever grateful for it because he made it for me. He thought that L.A. was were I needed to be and he made the choice of coming. It was his decision and you making it like I coerced him into coming, all it does is take away from Lucas' character and the reasons why he made that choice."

-"So you're saying that it was all Lucas' idea?"

- She rolled her eyes, had Haley always been that dense.

-"No I'm not. All I said was that Lucas ultimately took the decision, but we did talk about it beforehand. He told me he wanted to come and I agreed but like I said, it's none of your business."

-"Peyton…."

-"And as of our perfect life. Don't talk about things you know nothing about."

-"Peyton."

-"It wasn't perfect, hell it wasn't even easy. During my pregnancy, we barely saw each other. We both went to school full time and Lucas insisted that he could sustain us financially on his own and I insisted that he didn't abandon school so Lucas went to school during the day and he worked nights 40 hours a week minimum. All and all, we rarely saw each other. He'd come back home when I was already asleep and the only moments we'd truly spend together were a few minutes in the morning and in between classes. You know, from where I stand you and Nathan are the ones that had it easy. I mean, you worked a few hours at the Café and Nathan didn't have to work at all. You guys spent tons of time together."

-"You think that Nathan and I are the ones who had it easy? That's funny. Didn't you hear about the fact that we nearly got a divorce 2 years ago. See, Nathan might have had money and no need to work during college, but he had basketball. So if this is your attempt at a pity contest than you'll find that it might be a little harder to win than you thought."

-"You're really clueless, you know that right? I'm not attempting to convince you of how miserable I am because I'm not. I'm great, Lucas and I are great and so is Anna. All I'm saying is that it took us a long time to get there. I talked to Nathan and I know that you guys had some problems, that you fought a lot, but it wasn't like that with Luke and I. We didn't fight, we just barely saw each other and Lucas didn't spend as much time with Anna as he would have liked and it made things harder." She paused, focusing her ideas and then continued.

-"Eventually, things settled down, but the point is, seeing as none of you guys did anything to help us in any way, you have no right to comment on our life or what you think it is."

-"Peyton…" Before she could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by Peyton's cell phone ringing.

-"Forget it. You explained, no need to continue this. It doesn't matter anyway."

-"Hey!" She smiled into the phone.

-"Hey! How's my beautiful wife doing?"

-"Great now that I see you're in a good mood."

-"I am. So where are you?"

-"Still at Nathan's actually. Anna wanted to stay a little longer."

-"She corned you into it didn't she?" His laugh was a clear indication that he knew exactly how she had gotten herself into that situation. Anna's pressuring abilities were notorious by now. The girl was way too smart and way too cute, She could always get herself out of things, or get her parents to do what she wanted.

-"Pretty much." She laughed.

-"So you want me to take a cab and meet you there?"

-"No need, I'll grab Anna and we'll come pick you up. She wants to go to the park anyway."

-"Alright then. I'll see you in a few minutes. I love you."

-"Love you too." She closed the phone.

-"Anna, come on let's go. Daddy called." She spoke loudly, hoping to grab her daughter's attention and apparently she did because her daughter came barrelling followed closely by James and Nathan.

-"Daddy called?"

-"Yup and he's thrilled about going to the park."

-Anna's response was to run to grab her things.

-"I'm ready."

-"Good. Say goodbye to James and Nathan honey."

-Anna waved to her cousin and hugged Nathan, completely ignoring Haley and then grabbed her mother's hand.

-"Thanks Nate for watching her." She hugged Nathan and James and grabbed Anna's bag, before leading Anna out the door.

-"What did you do to her?" Nathan turned to Haley who had a confused look on her face.


	25. Chapter 25

-Peyton parked the car and opened her daughter's door. Anna saw her father and bolted toward him.

-"Anna, what do we say about running…" She stopped and shook her head as she realised that Anna was already only a few feet away from her dad.

-Lucas bent down and caught her into his arms. He hugged her to his body tightly.

-"How's my little princess?"

-"Me and James we drew pictures and then we played with robots. James, he doesn't have dolls. He said boys don't play with dolls and he said that robots don't have princesses. It's silly, I think that robots they have princesses."

-"They found the way to argue about it apparently, according to Nathan."

-Peyton walked up to them, kissing the top of her daughter's head.

-"And Anna, you remember we said no running off alone."

-"But it was daddy, it wasn't a stranger." The little girl argued, looking up at her father for help.

-"Mommy's right, no running off, you know that."

-He then looked down at his wife.

-"Hi, so you said they argued?" Lucas asked Peyton, kissing her quickly on the lips before putting Anna back down.

-"Not really a surprise is it?" Peyton smirked. "Nathan handled it. Apparently, they were arguing for the sake of arguing."

-"He wasn't being nice… and robots need princesses too." Anna argued, a frown on her face and the two adults laughed.

-"Of course they do." Lucas grinned, winking at Peyton.

-"Can I go play on the platform?" Anna asked her parents, pointing at the playing platform a few feet away.

-"Sure baby, but make sure we can always see you okay." Peyton told her daughter. Anna nodded enthusiastically and sprinted away.

-"She seems happier than yesterday." Lucas nodded as him and Peyton sat on a bench facing the platform.

-"Yeah, I think her spending time with James is helping her forget all the tension that's around us here."

-"So, how did it go, at Nathan's, you seemed tense on the phone?"

-"Me and Haley alone at a table for over twenty minutes, yeah, I'd say tensed just about covered it." Peyton smiled, resting her head on Lucas' shoulder.

-"So things aren't all squared away between you two?"

-"We talked, she tried to explain, we didn't quite reach an understanding though."

-"Peyt, you know that you don't have to go all sarcastic on me. I get it, all the emotions that come with dealing with everything, I feel them too."

-She turned and looked up into his eyes, his beautiful blue eyes, before she took a deep breath and spoke again.

-"I know, it's just, it's so much easier to avoid it. I want to pretend that it doesn't get to me, that it doesn't hurt like hell that they thought I'd do something like that, but…"

-"But it does."

-"Yeah. I was sitting there, listening to her try to explain her reasoning, and all I could really think about was that it didn't matter. No matter the explanation, or the motives, it doesn't erase what happened. It doesn't take all the hurt away."

-"I know. That's exactly how I feel. My mom hasn't apologized and I'm pretty sure that she won't at this point, but even if she did, I don't know that I could ever forgive her. And if I do find it in me to forgive her, I don't think that our relationship will ever be what it was."

-"I'm sorry Luke."

-"Yeah, i know. I guess. us being away for so long, it made it easier to pretend that we could just lock that whole experience away and pretend that it had never happened. Now it's all coming back and we're forced to dig those emotions up. I guess it's suppose to be hard."

-"Is it bad that a part of me wished we'd just kept away? Left well enough alone you know. We've been happy Luke, and I just…I can't help but think that even if we did settle everything with them, it's not like it would make us really happier. It would change almost nothing and I keep thinking…"

-"Why bother?"

-"Yeah, kind of. It's not that…I'm happy that we patched things up with Nathan, really I am, but ultimately, it's just…To me it feels like our past and our present are so different from each other."

-"I know. It feels like we'll never really be able to reconcile the two. And if we do manage it, will it make us happier?"

-"Yeah, exactly."

-"So, what do we do now?" Peyton asked, a few minutes later, as they kept watching their daughter play.

-"I don't know. We just handle it the best we can for the next two days and then go back home and get on with our lives. That's the only thing we can do really." Lucas wrapped and arm around his wife's shoulders comfortably.

-"Alright, let's do that." Peyton agreed, sighing into the comfort of his arms.

-Lucas kissed her head softly.

-"It'll be alright."

-"Yeah, I know."

-They spent the rest of the afternoon at the park and the evening at Larry's house playing board games. All and all, it was totally devoid of all drama, exactly the way they liked it.

-Waking up the next morning, Lucas laid in bed, his arms wrapped tightly around his wife, wandering how they were going to spend their last day in Tree Hill. Their flight was suppose to leave the next day at eleven forty nine, they were planning on leaving Tree Hill very early and for them it was soon enough.

-He looked down at Peyton. Being here, it made him realize more than ever how lucky they were that they had found each other, had found the way of hanging on to their love and make it. Back here, he was constantly reminded of how many things could have gone wrong, how easily he could have missed it all. All he had to do would have been to listen to his mom and Haley, one moment of weakness and his life would be completely different now. Just thinking about it, a cold shudder ran through him. It was a terrifying thought, Peyton and Anna were his world, he had no idea what his life would be without them.

-"Hey!"

-He looked down and met Peyton's sleepy eyes.

-"Hi!" He said softly, pecking her lips.

-"What were you thinking about?" She asked groggily, wrapping an arm around his naked torso and resting her head on his shoulder.

-"Just about how easily it could have all gone wrong. How different my life would be if I had listened to them."

-"And?"

-"I'm glad that I didn't."

-"Yeah, me too." Peyton agreed softly.

-"It's weird. I never thought about it before. I don't know, maybe it was because we were so far from them, or maybe it was because I just love you too much to even consider that we could be apart, but I never even considered what the alternative could have been if I had made a different choice. It's scary."

-"You know, only you could be so deep in thought so early in the morning." Peyton remarked a minute later, a smile on her lips.

-"You were still sleeping, I needed something to do." He smirked, lazily running his fingers along her back.

-"So, that thinking you've been doing, no regrets?" She wasn't insecure or anything, that was long over, she knew Lucas loved her, she could never doubt it. No, she was more curious.

-"No regrets." He agreed, bringing her body closer into his and kissing her deeply.

-Before he had a chance to deepened the kiss, Peyton rolled from under him and sat up. She chuckled when she saw him pout up at her.

-"We don't have time for that. Remember, we're suppose to call Nathan and arrange something to do for today."

-"That can wait. Come on…twenty minutes." He had sat up and was now kissing down her neck and Peyton was having a really hard time remembering why it was so important that they call Nathan anyway.

-Lucas gently pushed her back down, their lips fastened together as they kissed hungrily. They were interrupted quickly though, as they heard a knock at the door.

-Lucas looked to the ceiling in exasperation as he rolled off her and Peyton giggled.

-"Told you." She smirked at him before turning to the door. Quickly, she walked to the door. She expected Anna, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw her father.

-"Dad?"

-"I went to see if Anna was awake, to see if she wanted breakfast, and I think that she has a fever. She looks sick."

-Before he even finished his sentence, Peyton and Lucas had dashed passed him and into Anna's room. Peyton sat on the side of the bed and gently put her hand on Anna's forehead. Her dad was right, Anna had a fever.

-"Do you have a thermometer dad?"

-Her father nodded and quickly left the room. Lucas sat on the bed beside her.

-"Anna, Anna princess, wake up." He coaxed, gently rubbing her belly.

-The little girl stirred slowly and as soon as she came to, she cried out and grabbed at her ears.

-"Oh baby…" Peyton gathered the crying little girl into her arms just as her dad came back into the room. He handed the thermometer to Lucas who got up and gently squeezed it under Anna's arm.

-"Cold. Cold daddy." Anna wept.

-"I know princess. Just a minute okay." He was caressing her hair, trying to comfort her. When the thermometer beeped, he took it and read it.

-"99.5. Okay, that's not good. It's probably a ear infection or something like that. We need to get her to a doctor."

-"Her paediatrician's in L.A. Luke and she can't fly in that state." Peyton answered, and Lucas barely heard her over Anna's cries.

-"We'll get her to the emergency room then. Come on, let's get dress and get there."

-Peyton nodded and got up quickly, a screaming Anna gathered into her arms.

-It was quite a feat to get dress since Anna hadn't stopped crying and wouldn't be out of their arms even for a second. Eventually, they managed and quickly left the house for the hospital. Peyton sat in the back with their crying daughter while Lucas drove. They left the hospital six hours later with a sleeping child, a prescription for ear infection medicine and an indication that Anna wasn't to board a plane for the next ten days.

-After gently laying Anna down on their bed, Lucas turned to his wife.

-"So we got two choices, we drive back or we stay here, miss work and fly back when Anna's feeling better."

-"So, it's between thirty hours in a car with a screaming child or another ten days here with people I can't stand. Great choice." Peyton muttered, wrapping the covers tightly around her daughter and kissing her forehead.

-"I say we stay here a day or two more, see how she feels then. If she feels better, maybe we'll drive. Otherwise, we'll wait it out and fly back when she's okay. I can probably work from here, I'd have to call in and ask but that shouldn't be a problem. So if your boss doesn't want to give you another week, I guess that I could stay here with her and you'd fly back."

-"I'll call later. I don't think it'll be a problem. Worst case, they can always e-mail me the assignment and I could do the work from here and e-mail it back. Anyway, our plans for the day are set." She declared, nodding toward their sleeping daughter.

-"Yeah. You got to admit though, the girl's got lousy timing." Lucas joked, wrapping an arm around her waist as they quietly left the room.


	26. Chapter 26

-Three days later, Anna was starting to feel better, the doctor had recommended that they don't fly back until she was done with the antibiotics though so after a quick discussion, Peyton and Lucas had agreed to stay in Tree Hill until she felt better. Larry was out at sea for the next seven days, he hadn't been able to cancel to stay with them but he had insisted that they stay at the house, they had agreed.

-So here they were, three days after they were suppose to leave, still in Tree Hill.

-Peyton opened her eyes groggily, frowning when she realised that Lucas was still asleep. He always woke up before her. Really, in over five years of living together, she'd never woken up before him, never.

-Hesitating briefly on whether to wake him or not she decided to wait and go check on their daughter first. She quietly extricated herself from the warm covers and exited the room without a sound.

-She gently pushed her daughter's bedroom door open and smiled when she saw her all doused up by the covers, she was sleeping soundly, a first since she had gotten the ear infection. Peyton went to her and gently put her hand on her forehead. No fever, that was good.

-Realising that her daughter was perfectly fine, Peyton pressed a kiss to her forehead and quietly walked out of yet another room. She walked back into her room thinking that if her husband and daughter got to sleep late this morning, then she should definitively follow their examples. She walked in and quietly slipped under the covers.

-She smiled, seeing Lucas sleeping there, and buried her body as close to his as she possibly could. Lucas sighed and unconsciously wrapped an arm around her.

-That's when she felt it, he was burning up. She turned around and quickly placed her hand on his forehead. Yup, she was right, he had a fever.

-"Luke, wake up."

-He groaned and buried his face in his pillow.

-"Yeah, and he says she gets it from me." She muttered under her breath, smiling at how much her husband reminded her of their daughter in that moment. She tried again.

-"Lucas…"

-"No. Sleep." He muttered sleepily.

-"Honey, I think that you're sick."

-That got his attention. He couldn't be sick, but opening his eyes, the truth hit him like a ton of bricks.

-"Owww, I'm dying." He cried, burying his face in her abdomen and Peyton chuckled.

-"It's not funny. Oww, my ears hurt." He complained, putting his hand to his ears in pretty much the same fashion Anna had when she had gotten sick.

-"Oh, I'm sorry baby." Peyton smiled, kissing his forehead. "I think that you might have caught Anna's ear infection though."

-"Oh great, just great. Why is it always me?" He complained weakly and Peyton couldn't help it, she chuckled, he was so cute when he was sick.

-"Don't laugh. You spent just as much time with her as I have and you're as fine as day while I'm dying."

-"Well that's because I'm stronger than you hon…"

-He groaned and she decided to spare him a little.

-"What about I bring you some breakfast and some Tylenol before I take you to the hospital?"

-"No need, I'll just take Ann's medicine." He answered groggily.

-"One, that's for kids, and two, she needs to take it all."

-"Huh, fine." He agreed begrudgingly.

-She kissed his forehead one last time and quickly made her way downstairs. Lucas was right, no matter what their daughter caught, if it was contagious, he'd get it. It had become completely and utterly ridiculous a year ago when he'd caught Anna's Chicken Pox and she had been stuck with dealing with the two sick Scotts at the same time.

-Peyton thought that it was Karma. You see, Lucas had been repeating her for years that he never got sick, that he had the health of a horse, had had since he was a baby. He used to bring it up every time she got sick and it frustrated her to no end. Now, she was getting her revenge and it was damn satisfying, well except for the fact that she had to take care of the both of them at the same time, but he was so cute, and that more than made up for it.

-She walked in the kitchen and prepared him a glass of orange juice, she knew that he wouldn't eat, and she was about to walk back upstairs when she heard the doorbell. She stared at the door dubiously. Who the hell would be here at eight o'clock in the morning?

-Deciding to answer her own question, Peyton walked to the door and opened it cautiously. She almost had an heart attack when she saw who was on the other side of the door.

-"Hey curly, long time no see."

-She stared, in shock. Here, right in front of her, in her dad's house, in Tree Hill, North Carolina, stood her four best friends.

-"What the hell are you guys doing here?" She asked, barely containing her shock.

-"What? Not happy to see us?" Sam asked, putting his bags on the floor and bringing her into an hug. Finally, the shock wore off and she hugged him back.

-"Of course." She smiled, moving on to hug Liz, Sarah and then Chris.

-"What are you guys doing here?" She asked again.

-"Well after we talked to you the other day, Sara and I talked and we decided that since you were taking a vacation, then we might as well take one. These two just tagged alone because they had nothing better to do," Liz explained, nodding toward the two men who rolled their eyes at her.

-"Also, we decided that since you were already here, why not take the time to finally visit small town America."

-"Small town America?" Peyton looked at Sara, corking her eyebrow.

-"Hey, Los Angeles born and raised here, this is like another country to me." The girl laughed and the other four soon joined her.

-"Oh I'm so happy to see you guys." Peyton gushed, bringing her friends into a huge group hug.

-"Our pleasure, like Sara said, gotta love small town America." The tall, muscular brown haired journalist told her, smiling. Peyton laughed, god she had missed her friends.

-"You might not want people here to hear you say that too much though Sam or they're likely to go all witch hunt on your ass."

-"So, where is my favourite little girl? Still sick?" The other man, this one just as tall but without the muscular built of their other friend, changed the subject, looking around Peyton for any signs of Anna.

-"She's still sleeping, she's doing better though."

-"I'll still check her over when she wakes up. To be sure."

-"I'm telling you, this guy has had his medical licence for over three months and he still goes around checking everybody. Peyt already went to a doctor, sorry, maybe next time." Liz joked and they all laughed.

-"Well, maybe not actually. You're not licensed to prescribe anything here by any chance?" Peyton asked casually, hoping to maybe avoid another trip to the hospital. She wasn't so lucky though.

-"Nope. Why?"

-"Well, Lucas' sick. Woke up with a fever and his ears hitching.

-"Oh my god! You're kidding? He caught it? Again?"

-All Peyton could do was nod, the biggest smile on her face, and they all burst out laughing. It was the stuff of legend now between their group of friends how Lucas couldn't for the life of him not catch something once Anna had it.

-"Mommy, daddy said…" Anna's eyes met the other occupants of the room as she came down the stairs. "Aunt Liz!!" She yelped, running straight into the blonde's open arms.

-Liz hugged her tightly.

-"Hey kiddo, how are you doing?" Liz asked her goddaughter caringly, smoothing down her hair.

-"Good." Anna chimed, smiling into her godmother's neck.

-"Hey, what about me?" Sara piped up in mock anger and Anna seemed to realise for the first time that Liz wasn't the only one in the room.

-"Aunt Sara! Uncle Chris! Uncle Sam!" She yelped happily, throwing herself into the closest arms she saw, Sam's. He hugged her close and swung her around cheerfully, making the little girl giggled before passing her to Chris who did the same.

-"Alright, you've had her enough, give me my goddaughter." Sara declared, a smile on her face as she took Anna from Chris. She hugged the girl tightly.

-"How's my baby girl?"

-"Good. Are you visiting us?" She asked a second later, making eye contact with the four adults curiously.

-"Of course, who else would we be visiting?" Sam laughed seeing the little girl ponder the question.

-"Yeah, we missed you baby girl." Sara continued, and Anna beamed at them.

-"Alright baby, so what did daddy say again?" Peyton pressed, realising that before Anna had noticed her friends, she was going to tell her something.

-"Oh, huh he said to tell you to hurry because he was dying? Mommy, daddy isn't really dying is he?"

-Peyton laughed. "No he's not, he's got the same thing you got I think, and he's just being a baby about it."

-"Oh! But uncle Chris can make it better. Can you uncle Chris?" She looked up at the young doctor hopefully.

-"Well, we've got to find a hotel first, but what about I come back after and look him over." He suggested.

-"Wait, what hotel?"

-"Well, we can't stay here, can we?"

-"Of course you can. Look, my dad's on a job so there's his room, there's a free guest bedroom and Anna will just sleep with me and Luke in our room. So, if two of you don't mind sharing, there'll be plenty of space."

-"You sure?"

-"Of course, you guys are family." Peyton smiled, happy to have them here, the presence of her four best friends making her more hopeful that they could get through the next seven days without having a major breakdown.


	27. Chapter 27

-Two hours later, after they had made fun of Lucas for a good while and Peyton had dressed Anna and given her her antibiotics, under Chris' watchful eye of course, Peyton left to take Lucas to the hospital so that he could get some antibiotics of his own and the four friends left the house with Anna to go grocery shopping. With four other people in the house, it was decided that it was an absolute necessity.

-"We should have stopped and asked. We would have been here an hour ago if we had." Sara complained, taking Anna out of her car seat as they exited the car at the grocery store.

-"And looked totally like tourists. It would have been ridiculous. Beside we found it."

-"Yeah, after driving around for over an hour." Liz complained.

-"I feel like I've seen enough trees to last me a lifetime." Sara complained, walking with Anna in her arms toward the store's entrance, her friends around them.

-"What? Weren't you the one who wanted to see small town America? Well I showed you small town America." Chris argued.

-"You didn't show me squat, you were lost." Sara shot back.

-"You guys are still funny." Anna piped in, giggling at the adults arguing.

-"That's what we're going for baby girl." Sam laughed, kissing the young girl's head.

-"Alright, what do we buy?"

-"Ice cream, and cake. We need cake." Anna decided, looking at the adults decidedly.

-"The essentials of life for a four year old." Chris laughed and Anna glared at him.

-"I like cake and ice cream." She argued.

-"We've known you since you were born kiddo, we know that."

-"Yup, changed your diapers and everything." Sam continued smirking at the little girl who in response glared at the two men.

-"No fair. I was just a baby."

-"Alright guys, leave her alone. She's sick." Liz cut in, glaring at her friends.

-"Yeah, I'm sick." Anna agreed stubbornly, crossing her little arms over her chest to put some emphasis to her point.

-"Alright, sorry baby girl." Sam made peace with the stubborn girl before turning to his friends. "So, other than ice cream and cake, what are we going to eat this week?"

-An hour later, Anna was almost asleep in Chris' arms as they finally reached the frozen section.

-"Alright baby girl, what sort of ice cream do you want?" Chris asked the little girl softly, pushing a few strands of hair out of her face.

-"Hum, banana." The girl finally decided after a few seconds, earning herself a look from the adults.

-"You're kidding right?" Sara asked her uncertainly.

-"Huh huh." She shook her head. "I want banana aunt Sara." She repeated, this time with more certainty.

-"Banana ice cream with chocolate cake? You got really weird tastes baby girl." Liz laughed, looking for the girl's determined flavour of ice cream.

-"What? It's good." Anna argued, pouting.

-"Sure. I don't see any though." Sara conceded, looking around the shelves some more.

-"My medicine tastes like banana." Anna declared, her head still resting on Chris' shoulder a few seconds later.

-"Well that's good, maybe you can mix them together." Sara laughed, shaking her head at the girl's randomness.

-Finally, they found the coveted banana ice cream. They were on their way to the cashiers when they literally ran into somebody, well, Sam did.

-"Oh! I'm sorry. I wasn't looking…Anna!!"

-"Uncle Nathan!" The little girl cried happily.

-Nathan eyes set on her, and then on the people around her, the man who was holding her.

-"What? Who the hell are you?" He asked heatedly, making a move to grab Anna from the man but he stepped back, protecting her body with his.

-"Us? Who the hell are you?"

-"Uncle Sam, you said a bad word." Anna quipped, not looking the least worried about her situation, and Nathan frowned.

-"Alright, give her over and maybe I won't call the cops."

-"The cops? Why would you…wait, you think that we've kidnapped her?" Sam asked him, incredulous.

-"Look, whoever you are, her parents know that we have her." Liz continued eagerly. The last thing they wanted was to end up in a jail cell because some guy thought that they had kidnapped the girl. That would be ridiculous.

-"Oh really?" Apparently he was unconvinced.

-"Yeah, and who the hell are you?" Sam asked, eyeing the man, woman and little boy warily. "Do you know him baby girl?"

-"Huh huh." The girl nodded. "He's my uncle Nathan, and that's his wife and that's my cousin Jamie." Anna recited, her head still resting on Chris' shoulder.

-"Really?" Liz asked, eying the three individuals.

-"Yeah, now who the hell are you?" Nathan pressed again.

-"Uncle Nathan, you don't have to worry, they're my family." Anna spoke caringly, noticing the worry in her uncle's eyes.

-"Your family?" Nathan asked disbelievingly.

-"Huh huh." She nodded knowingly. "That's my uncle Chris, he's a doctor, and that's my aunt Liz and my aunt Sara and my uncle Sam."

-"Oh! So Peyton and Luke really know that you have her?" Nathan asked, starting to feel a little ashamed of himself. It was obvious, Anna was very comfortable with them. If they had kidnapped her, he guessed that she wouldn't.

-"Yeah, Peyt had to take Lucas to the hospital so we took Anna shopping for a few hours."

-"Lucas? Is he okay?"

-"He's dying."

-"He's what?" Haley asked, momentarily terrorized by the little girl's statement.

-"No he's not. It's just a simple ear infection that he probably caught from Anna banana here and he's being melodramatic about it."

-"Oh!"

-"Yeah, he could have probably done without the antibiotics. When was the last time anyone ever died from a ear infection anyway? Anyhow, Lucas was sick so Peyton being the nice little wifey took him to the emergency room. I would have left him suffer."

-"You'll make such an amazing wife." Sam said sarcastically, laughing at Sara with the rest of his friends.

-"No way. I'm not spending the rest of my life playing mommy to a twenty five year old man." Sara shot back, sending the lot of them back laughing. Sara's revulsion of engagement was well known to all of them by now.

-"Oh! You're the girl from the video!" Haley suddenly exclaimed, looking at Sara in realization.

-"Huh what?"

-"Oh Sara, and here we thought you were done with the R-rated." Sam joked, earning himself a slap on the arm from the girl and a dubious look form the couple.

-"What video?" She asked Haley, still glaring at her friend.

-"The baby diary."

-"Oh! Well yeah, probably. I'm Sara by the way." The brunette said, extending her hand to Nathan who shook it and then to Haley.

-"I'm Nathan Scott, and this is my wife Haley. Anna already introduced our son Jamie."

-They nodded and all shook their hands.

-"Wait! Scott? You're Lucas' brother. You're one of those who wanted him to…"

-"It's okay aunt Liz, he said sorry." Anna chimed.

-"He did? You did?"

-"Yes. Do you really think that they would have let me spend time with Anna otherwise?"

-"Right, probably not. It's just…I don't know if your conscious of how much that tore him up inside." Sara stressed, eyeing Nathan seriously. He flinched.

-"I can guess." He said awkwardly.

-"She didn't say sorry though." Anna enlightened them once again, pointing to Haley, an accusing look in her eyes that no one could miss and Haley recoiled a little.

-"I tried actually." Haley started, noticing the eyes of the four adults on hers. "Peyton's not the most forgiving person there is."

-"Yeah, wonder why." Sam muttered darkly.

-"Guys, let's not get carried away here. Not when Anna's here." Liz said calmly, eyeing the boys menacingly.

-"You have to understand though, before you try to talk to Peyton again, that she already felt guilty, about geting pregnant, about Lucas leaving here to come to LA. When he told her that you guys blamed her, that you thought she was destroying his life, it completely destroyed her and for a while, it was really bad. She felt like she didn't deserve to be happy about it. She tried to push Lucas away so many times, doing everything she possibly could to make him leave, she didn't want to take his dreams away from him. It took Lucas almost two months to convince her that he was happy, that he wouldn't change anything." Liz paused, arranging her thoughts before continuing. "What you told Lucas, it almost destroyed her, almost destroyed their relationship. You have to understand that and convince her that you won't do it again or she'll never let you in again." She finished seriously, her eyes baring into Haley.

-"I...It was never my intention, to hurt her like that I mean. I just...I didn't want to loose my best friend. I know now that it was selfish and junvenile...I just don't know how to fix it." Haley spoke quietly before finally meeting Liz's eyes. The other girl took a few seconds before anwering.

-"Just try again. If there's one thing I know about Peyton it's that she's forgiving. Like I said, if she doesn't think that you're a threat to her family anymore, she'll forgive you." Liz finished and Haley nodded understandingly.

-"So, how long are you guys in town for?" Nathan asked, wanting to change the subject to something a little less grim.

-"A week, we're going to fly back when they do, when Anna, and now Luke too I guess, are okay."

-"You staying with them?"

-"Of course uncle Nathan, they're visiting." Anna said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

-"So, are the four of you dating each other?" Haley asked, eyeing the four individuals. It was weirds thinking that they were such a huge part of Lucas, Peyton and Anna's life and that they had never even met them before.

-"Eww, no, like we'd date those losers." Liz said dramatically, pretending to gag in disgust at the guys who apparently being used to her antics simply rolled their eyes.

-"So you two..." Nathan nodded toward her and Sara awkwardly, "are you…I mean…"

-"Gay? Why would you ask that?" Liz asked, laughing. Somehow, she found the idea incredibly funny.

-"Huh it's nothing, it's just Peyton mentioned that the both of you were Anna's godmothers and I just figured." Nathan explained embarrassingly.

-"Oh! Well no. She's got such a lousy taste in guys, maybe it'd be better this way, but no." Sara laughed. "Owww." She complained after Liz had slapped her arm.

-"What's gay mommy?" The little boy, Jamie, asked his parents and Haley shot her husband a dirty look.

-"Sorry, shouldn't have mentioned that in front of the kids. Jamie, gay means really happy."

-"No it doesn't." Anna disagreed knowingly.

-"See. No need to apologize. The girl's being raised in Los Angeles, there's nothing that could come out of your mouth that would scar her." Sam laughed, ruffling Anna's hair affectionatedly and earning himself a glare from the little girl.

-"What does it means then?" Jamie pressed, looking at his cousin challengingly.

-"It's when it's not a mommy and a daddy but a mommy and another mommy or a daddy and another daddy." Anna explained knowingly and Nathan shot the group a look.

-"Funny story." Chris started, he and his friends smiling brightly at the memory. "So, you met Anna? You know how the girl can ask the most awkward questions at the worst possible moments?"

-"Do not." Anna argued, pouting.

-"Right." Sara muttered and Anna glared at her.

-"So, we're walking out of the movies, a few months ago, and Lucas' holding Anna's hand and we walk right by this couple of girls and they're making out. All of us, we don't pay them any attention, but they sure caught Anna's. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at them quizzically, which in turn forced Luke to stop and Anna she turns to him and asks why the two ladies are kissing like him and her mommy kiss."

-"Oh you should have seen Lucas' expression, it was hilarious." Liz cut in, laughing and Nathan and Haley both started to laugh as well. That must have been awful.

-"So, by the time Anna' asked, the girls have stopped kissing and are wondering what's going on, and Lucas, he's like tomato red, and he's trying to get Anna to drop it and that he'll explain it to her at home, but the girl won't let it go."

-"He looked at Peyton, he was hoping that she'd take that one for him but Peyton was nearly hyperventilating by that time so he was stuck. He bends down to Anna and he tries to explain to her that they're kissing because they like each other and Anna looks up at him and she's like 'of course I know that daddy, but they're two girls', and Lucas he's so red by then that you'd have thought he had a massive sunburn and the girls were still standing there looking at him expectantly. You should have heard Lucas babbling on, trying to make it clear for Anna and not get his ass kicked by the girls, it was hilarious."

-"And when he said that it was…how did he put it… 'not exactly normal', I almost piied my pants."

-"Oh yeah, he was about a second from getting slapped when Peyton finally stopped laughing long enough to help him out and explained to Anna that everybody is different and that some people prefer kissing with girls or boys instead of the other way around."

-"I think that we laughed about that one for at least a month. Poor Luke, he hasn't been able to look anywhere near a couple of lesbians since."

-Nathan was nearly bent over laughing now, and so was Haley.

-"Oh my God, that must have been so awkward." Haley cried, imagining how she would have felt if Jamie had been the one to ask.

-"You have no idea, and the lot of us were laughing way too hard to be of any help so poor Lucas was literally stuck between an eager four year old and a couple of lesbians."

-"Which is not exactly a nice place to be if you follow me." Chris finished, his laughter slowly receding. He then noticed that Anna was starting to doze off.

-"Well, it looks like baby girl here is due for a nap. It was nice to meet you guys. Maybe we'll see each other again. We got tons of stories like this one that we could share."

-"Yeah, sure. Tell Peyton and Luke that I'll call them alright." Nathan said, shaking Sam's hand and then Chris and nodding to the girls.

-"No problem." Liz agreed, seconds before they walked to the cashiers and out of the store.


End file.
